Total pages in book: 187
Estimated words: 184867 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 924(@200wpm)___ 739(@250wpm)___ 616(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 184867 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 924(@200wpm)___ 739(@250wpm)___ 616(@300wpm)
“I can’t let you see him when he’s at his weakest,” I say.
Her gaze sweeps across all the blood caking my skin, a hint of shock riddling her face. Still, she doesn’t back away despite the horrors she just watched us inflict on our enemies, and it surprises me.
“I just … wanted to say thank you. For saving me.”
I want to believe her. I really do. But I know she’d kill him in a heartbeat too.
“Why? You still want to kill him.”
Her face darkens. “You know why.”
“Yes. I do.” The look in her eyes has definitely changed into something less vicious than before. But I’d be lying if I said I didn’t feel hurt. “But Ares and I need each other, and I won’t let you take that away from me too.”
Her round lips part. “I … I’m sorry for lying to you.”
Her apology catches me off guard.
She averts her eyes. “I did mean to tell you about my struggle with him at some point, but I needed to prove first why I did what I did so you could understand.”
I can feel myself softening up, and I bite my lip piercing, torn between her and him. Because I know exactly why she wants to kill him. A fire has been churning inside her for so long that it was bound to burn out. “I know you want to avenge your father.” I pause. “But you have it all wrong. I just know it. And this thing? It’s breaking him, just like it broke me when I found out your mother was dating my father.”
Her eyes tear up slowly. “I …”
“Let her in.”
Ares’s voice rips through me, and she blinks away a few tears in a hurry.
“I can’t let her kill you,” I growl at him, rubbing my forehead in despair as I turn to her again. “I won’t.” I grab her shirt and pull her close. “Don’t you understand? I need you both alive. I need you, and I need him. You’re both my salvation and my downfall. I fucking need you both so much I can’t stand to live without. How am I supposed to survive when it feels like I can’t fucking breathe?” I say, desperation poisoning my voice. “How am I supposed to survive knowing you two will be each other’s end?”
Guilt riddles her blood-caked face. “But—”
“Don’t make me choose. Please,” I murmur, slowly releasing her from my grip. “I’m begging you.”
Surprise flashes across her face.
“I … love him,” I whisper, letting my hand travel down her chest as my own tightens with desire. “But I’ve also fallen in love with you.”
CRYSTAL
“What?”
He … loves me?
I don’t even know what else to say.
I’m too stunned.
I almost can’t believe my ears, but something about the way he looks at me with those anguish-laced hazel eyes makes me trust him.
I never knew how much it would hurt to watch him suffer.
To watch him literally bleed for me.
My hand instinctively rises to touch the gash on his chin from the fight. A small wound compared to the festering hole in his heart eating away at him. And I am the one to blame. All this time, all he wanted was to protect his mother, for his father to stay, for his family not to break apart.
And it’s been killing him to the point where he’s equated his own death with pleasure.
I swallow away the lump in my throat, realizing what a complicated individual he is, even though I initially believed he was nothing more than a rampant bully.
And just how much I’ve begun to feel for him.
My finger slowly travels up to his lip as my defiance slowly unravels from the last hanging thread.
“Show me what it’s like when you love.”
Within an instant, his lips smash on mine, practically making my heart sing. His tongue sweeps around my mouth and the roof of my mouth, desperately circling around my tongue as though he wants to mesh our hearts together just so I can feel the kind of love he feels for Ares.
He kisses me like he’s torn between loving me and hating me for making him fall in love. And I can’t blame him. He’s made me feel the same way as my fingers curl around his hair and hold on tight.
But my God, do these forbidden kisses feel so damn good.
“I can’t. I can’t choose,” he murmurs between kissing me. “I want both of you to be mine.”
His kisses are feverish, and for a second, I almost forget to breathe. “Yes.”
He slowly tears away from my lips. “Is it possible?”
I bite my lip and shudder in place. “Let me talk with him.”
He takes a deep breath and averts his eyes before he finally steps aside and allows me to pass.
“Thank you,” I say as my hand lingers on his, and I squeeze softly.