47. You Asked Me To
YOU ASKED ME TO
“Please don’t leave me here.”
I frowned, turning around.
“Leave? I just got you back.”
I walked closer to her, checking the rope. It bit into the willow tree just where I wanted.
Good. She couldn’t wander off now.
I moved around her, circling her with a mix of hope and desperation, my hands trembling as I gently but insistently mended the knots binding her wrist. I could see the bruises softly blooming beneath her skin—fragile, fleeting, and so painfully real.
I brushed her hair back behind her ear, my voice barely a whisper, thick with emotion.
“See?” I murmured, my heart pounding. “Much better.”
“Charlie, I’m so sorry,” she choked out between sobs, her voice breaking like fragile glass. But her words weren’t necessary; I already knew.
I gently reached up, brushing a tear away from Lilly’s cheek.
My voice wavered with emotion as I declared, “I know, I know you are.”
I finally did what I knew I had to from the very beginning—I stayed.
My fingers wobbled as I lingered over her lips, and she looked so incredibly beautiful, so painfully vulnerable. Those mesmerizing blue eyes, filled with unwavering devotion, seized my very soul and held it hostage.
With a gentle touch, I pressed a soft kiss onto her cold, trembling lips, tasting the salt of her tears—each drop a silent cry of her despair and longing.
“What are you going to do to me?” she whimpered, her voice bitter with fear, as I slowly pulled away.
For an agonizing moment, confusion flickered across my face, stretching too long before I finally stepped back and gazed at her—my heart pounding uncontrollably.
“I want to taste your fear… I want to feel your pain… I want to hear you scream my name,” I affirmed, my lips pressing tenderly onto her tears, trailing kisses across her jawline, each one a battle between my desire and the ache in my chest. When I reached her collarbone, I paused, my lips just centimeters from her skin, shuddering with the need to do more.
“The crazy part,” I murmured, voice thick with emotion, “is that you’ll ask me to do it again.”
Without waiting for her reply, I turned on my heel and walked away, every step heavy with the weight of everything left unsaid, leaving behind the doubts.