Chapter 13 #3
He’s right. The differences between him and evil are what draw my female lead in and change the way she interacts with her target.
He’s not meant to be evil. He’s meant to be unapologetic.
Which is why an apology from him carries so much weight.
“Mirabelle is strong. I’m sure she’s chastising those old biddies already.
No doubt shaming them for playing the meddling lot…
but…well. No real harm’s been done. They’re still her friends, and she’s known how they are for far longer than this. ”
“I’m relieved. She really was quite distressed on your behalf.”
I perk. “So you mean that whatever secrets she’s learned are distressing for me?”
“Either that, or secrets alone distress her.”
“I’m excited to find out which it is.”
He smiles. “I can tell. I’m grateful.”
“For what?”
“The fact you’re you. You make me feel alive, interesting, unique.
You make me feel like I can become anything and anyone.
You take all the drear I’ve lived in my whole life and add colors, light, sunshine.
Being with you is like facing my very first dawn after ages of night.
I’m blinded…and warm…and grateful. Nothing is mundane around you. You don’t let it be. I love that.”
“Is being interesting something you value that much?”
He lifts a shoulder. “After a lifetime of being told I’m not, it’s made me wonder what I’m missing out on or just what I’m missing in general.”
“Proper companions,” I say. “That’s all you’ve been missing.
” I take his free hand in mine, loosen his fist. “There are plenty of people I don’t find particularly riveting, but I’m positive that everyone has something that makes them special.
I’m positive that everyone is capable of playing a lead role.
Not everyone would fit into the lead role of a story I’d enjoy, but there is no one entirely uninteresting in this world.
Humans are much too complex for it to be possible. ”
“Sonder,” he says.
Every part of me flutters, because sonder is an uncommon word that describes this exact feeling, the sensation that everyone holds a depth and a character and a life as meaningful and complex as our own. Thoroughly infatuated, I murmur, “You know something, Dominic?”
“What?” he asks, so softly, as though he’s standing on the very edge of his sanity.
Gently, I say, “I think I’d read a series about you and still not be bored.”
His shoulders crumple, then he loses his restraint and wraps me up in his arms. The warmth and stability crush me, adding heat to the balm of the summer night.
His fingers dig into my body, searching for bones to latch on to.
Breath shakes through his lungs, and his swallow echoes against my head.
Hoarse and broken, he says, “I love you.”
Far more than an instant weighs in that statement, and I can’t shake the sensation as it presses on my chest.
This man loves me.
Truly, madly, deeply.
I don’t know how. I don’t fully know why.
But I know it’s true.
I know it’s true with every pound of his heart against my ear and the way he can’t help but crush me in his arms, like he’s wanted nothing more from the moment he saw me in Bear’s and something profound struck him to his core.
I’m looking forward to piecing this puzzle together. I’m looking forward to learning more about him. I’m looking forward to far more pages and words than this.
Soft, I say, “I hope you figure out what you need to with The Council.”
Reluctance tightens his every muscle, but he forces himself to unwind his arms and free me. Eyes glassy, he looks down at my face, then he touches my cheek with his fingertips. “Is that the start of goodbye?”
I nod, adjust my glasses, still feel the pinch from them being pressed into my skin against his chest. “I have a book to write, a mystery to unravel…a dinner to make. You’ll be home for it, won’t you?”
His fingertip slips across my bottom lip. “Yes. I will.”
I lift my binder. “Are you mourning the fact all the kisses in here were undoubtedly December’s doing?”
“Yes.”
I step back, out of his touch, off the slab of porch cement, onto the sidewalk. “That makes two of us.”
His eyes widen.
“I’m looking forward to this weekend,” I charge on, to maintain the correct pacing. “I’ve been practicing my self-control, you see. Alongside my teasing. May our battle be agonizing and enticing and…uniquely us.”
Face blazing, he smiles. “I can’t wait.”
I turn, but the sound of his footstep forward stops me.
“Little saint.”
I don’t move. I just hug my binder a touch tighter and wait.
Air leaves him, loud and rushed. “I… I’d like to marry you.
Please keep that in mind during our every interaction going forward.
I know I’ve alluded to it previously, but let me stand here plainly for a moment and hope it might still be enough for you.
I would like to marry you. And I promise if you allow me the honor, I will weave myself into any number of tales for you to enjoy for as long as you’ll have me. ”
Heat fills my body, blistering my every inch, so I untangle one arm from around the binder and make sure my hair is covering my ears as I say, “I’ll expect a better proposal later, when you know I’ll say yes.”
“Of course.”
“To better your chances, don’t you dare propose on one knee with a ring.”
“I wouldn’t dream of being so unoriginal.”
Forgetting myself, and the blaze I was just trying to hide, I smile over my shoulder at him, then I hurry to my car and head home.