My Cecily has learned to move past her trauma and grow into this…ethereal being that I want to hide from the world.
But I can’t. And I won’t.
I just want to have her because I simply can’t imagine life without her.
After one last look at her, I slam down the shield of my helmet and rev my bike before I speed down the road.
Half an hour later, I’m at the airport. One of my father’s guards nods at me, and I nod back. I stare behind me in search of Ilya since he’s supposed to bring the car and follow after.
A few minutes later, the car stops by the plane’s stairwell.
The passenger door flies open, and Cecily nearly throws herself outside. She runs to me, panting, her breath caught, and her face so pale, I can see the veins.
She grabs my hand in hers, tears gathering in her big green eyes. And while I’m over the moon that she’s touching me, I don’t like the tears.
“Why haven’t you told me?” Her voice is brittle and so fucking sad, it cuts me open.
“Told you what?”
“That you’re sick. You’re dying?” She all but bursts out crying, her tiny frame shaking, her choked breathing filling the air.
Ilya steps out of the car next, looking absolutely calm.
“I’m dying?” I mouth.
“I had to do something. It’s boring to watch whatever foreplay this is.” Then he takes the stairs and gets on the plane.
“You could’ve told me.” She wraps her arms around me, her body molding to mine as she cries her eyes out. “I wouldn’t have been so cruel. I would’ve spent as much time with you as possible.”
I wrap my hand around her back, relishing the feeling of her pliant body against me.
Fuck.
It’s been so long that I wish time would stop at this moment.
“Does that mean you forgive me?” I go with Ilya’s stupid plan.
“I think I forgave you a long time ago.” She digs her nails into my back.
“Then why were you giving me the cold shoulder?”
“Because I was scared of getting hurt again, because you’re the only one who’s able to hurt me.”
“I won’t hurt you, Cecily.” I tug her away so that I’m staring at her tear-streaked face. “You’re the fire to my icy heart, and while I loathed that at the beginning, I soon came to the realization that I can’t survive without that fire. My feelings for you are nowhere near conventional. They’re neither proportional nor measurable, and that heart you melted and the emotions you provoked belong to you. I’d rather be smashed and broken to pieces with you than be whole without you. I’d rather remain a beast for you than become a man who has to survive without you.”
“Oh, Jeremy…” Her hand strokes my cheek. “Why haven’t you said any of this before?”
“You never gave me a chance.”
“I’m so sorry. I’m sorry I let my fear keep us apart.”
“Does that mean you’ll love me again?”
“I never stopped, idiot.”
“Even if I’m dying?”
She cries harder. “Don’t say that! Medicine is so advanced these days, and there’s surely a solution.”