Rhapsodic (The Bargainer, #1)

by Laura Thalassa

For the first time in what seems like an eternity, I can breathe. I sob again. God, it feels good. This time, tears follow.

Too many bad people, and too many memories worth forgetting.

A single command is all it takes. Forget I exist. Poof, your memory scrubs away my existence. Look away. Your eyes move everywhere but me. Tell me your darkest secret. Your mouth and mind betray you. Give me your riches. You’ll clean out our bank account in an instant. Drown. Drown. Drown. Drown. You die.

Amazing that something and someone who entered and exited my life close to a decade ago can still have this kind of hold on me.

“You’re righter than you know, cherub. You did force me to leave you. Seven years is a long time to wait, especially for someone like me. A word of caution: I’m not leaving again.”

Anything I want, you would have to give to me. Tell me, cherub, could you give me anything I wanted? Could you give your body to me?

I’m drowning in years of desire for this man.

“Cherub,” he says, his voice serious, “I will always come for you.”

“You know,” I say, “I missed you. Every day.” It was an ache that lasted seven years. It should’ve dulled, but it never did.

“The clothes were always there waiting for you. Last night, I just wanted to see you in mine.”

“Then why don’t you stop making deals with me?” Again, his eyes glint. “You play a dangerous game with me, siren. Making deals is its own sort of compulsion.” His voice is so low that only I can hear it. “And you offer them to me so easily.” He pauses, his eyes shining wickedly. “Don’t think I’ll ever stop taking them—because I won’t.”

Ten points to Slytherin for the creepy answer.

“You’re not going to stop living your life because some days are harder than others.”

“Yes,” he says, “that’s what I want to see. Your anger, your fight.” His tone softens. “I’m not asking you to never feel sad, Callie. I’m asking you to fight. Always fight. You can do that, can’t you?”

“What are we doing here?” I finally ask. Anything to lift this weight off my chest. The Bargainer crosses his muscular arms over his chest. “You’re repaying your debts.” “Stop it, Des,” I say. “You and I both know that’s not what I meant. Last night, you were going to tell me.” He leans forward, resting his forearms on the edge of the table. “But only if you stayed, Callie. You didn’t stay.” “I could say the same for you.” All those lost years. “Do you even like me?” “I’ve kissed you, I’ve begged you to stay with me, and I’ve spent most of the last week with you. What do you think?” he says softly.

“There is something, Callie, that you’ve never asked me: how I felt about our seven years apart.” The audacity! “That’s exactly what I’ve been asking you,” I say. “No, you’ve been trying to figure out why I left. Not how I felt.”

“How did you feel, leaving me?” I ask. He holds my gaze. “Like my soul was ripped in two.”

He didn’t want to leave me seven years ago. Softly, I brush a kiss along that defined jaw of his. I forgive you for breaking my heart, I think as I kiss him. Angling his face to the side, I press another kiss to his jaw. I still want you. Another kiss. I think I always will.

“The only time our wings come out is when we want to fight or fuck.”

“You want to know a real secret?” he rasps. I nod against him. “I want to wake up to you every single morning.”

Fate’s too cruel to ever give you more than a taste of what you want.

I’m scared—of him, of us. Of having everything I ever wanted within my grasp, only for it to slip through my fingers. Because it will slip through my fingers. That’s just the nature of things.

“That also happens to be why the Night Kingdom is considered the most romantic of realms. Not only do lovers meet under the cloak of darkness, darkness is the most eternal of all things. To declare your love until the end of night is the most sacred and undying of vows.” More quietly, he adds, “It’s the oath I will take when I bind myself to my queen.”

“Lucky girl,” I say, pushing away from the wall and him along with it. I feel Des’s eyes on me as I cross through his room. “No,” he corrects. “She won’t be the lucky one. I’ll be.”

I didn’t fall for Des because he was handsome or because he knew my secrets but because he stuck around when I was least lovable.

Because he was a man who didn’t try to take anything from me even when I lay next to him but instead gave me peace and comfort. Because each one of those nights, he saved me all over again, even if it was from myself.

My existence so far has mostly consisted of me holding my breath, waiting for the other shoe to drop.

“A fairy doesn’t show his wings to his betrothed.” He slides his hand behind my neck, his thumb stroking my skin. “A fairy shows them to his soul mate.”

“I would take you away and never release you. My sweet little siren.” He runs a hand along the bare skin of my back, and I shiver. “You don’t belong here, and both my patience and my humanity grow thin.” Something’s not right. “I could make you do so many things—so many, many things,” he whispers. “You would enjoy them all, that I promise you. You would enjoy them, and so would I.”

hadn’t imagined this—that he’d crave me like a dying man craves life.

“From flame to ashes, dawn to dusk, for the rest of our lives, be mine always, Desmond Flynn.”

“That I’m in love with you? That I have been since you were that obstinate teen with way too much courage? That you’re my soul mate and I’m yours? Gods save me, yes, I am.”

“Callie, I love you. I’ve loved you from the beginning. And I will love you long after the last star dies. I will love you until the end of darkness itself.”

“I want to wake up every morning to you, cherub, and one day, in the future, when I’ve made myself worthy of it, I want to marry the shit out of you, and then I want to have lots and lots of babies with you. If, that is, you will have me.”

“I’ll be yours, if you’ll be mine,”

“And mountains may rise and fall, and the sun might wither away, and the sea claim the land and swallow the sky. But you will always be mine.” He runs his knuckles over my cheekbone. “And the stars might fall from the heavens, and night might cloak the earth, but until darkness dies, I will always be yours.”

“If you run, I will chase you, and I will break you, pretty bird.”

“Let our enemies come, and I will kill them all. So long as you’re at my side, cherub, I have something to fight for.”