Chapter 58
Fifty-Eight
Brooks
Daphne coughed up a mouthful of water, her arms locked around my neck, as I swam us toward the dock.
By the time I hauled her out of the water, my lungs burned, but I ignored it. She collapsed onto her ass, still coughing, as water pooled around her shivering body.
“I’m normally a good swimmer.” She wiped water from her face with the soaking-wet sweater she’d managed to save on our swim back, which didn’t help much. “But I keep being rescued by men.” She frowned. “I don’t like that.”
I cracked a smile.
There she is. There’s that attitude.
This was the Daphne I’d fallen in love with.
I shook my head to shove that thought away.
I hadn’t come here to fall into that trap again, but I wasn’t sure if I’d ever escaped it to begin with.
“Come on,” I said.
She stared up at me, as if I’d jumped in not to save her, but to hold her head beneath the water until she drowned. Daphne genuinely believed I wanted her dead.
I fucking hate that.
Truth was, the second she disappeared beneath the water, I’d nearly lost my fucking mind. I hadn’t thought before jumping in. Hadn’t even fucking hesitated.
I was still so fucking afraid of anything hurting this woman, even when I was supposed to hate her.
I peeled off my jacket and draped it around her shivering shoulders, even though just like her sweater, the damn thing was nearly as wet as she was.
“Let’s get you back to the castle.” I held out my hand.
She stared at it like it was a loaded gun.
I knew how stubborn she was, and she’d probably sit there until she froze to death, so I grabbed her elbow and pulled her to her feet.
She stumbled slightly and grabbed my shoulder to steady herself. Her touch was freezing through my shirt. She kicked off her ruined heels and hooked them through her fingers.
“I’m able to walk,” she muttered in a breathless voice.
I released her and stepped back. It was better this way.
We walked down the dock in silence. The only sounds were our shallow breathing and the steady roll of waves crashing into the rocks.
“How’s your new girlfriend?” she asked once we were off the pier.
I stopped in my tracks to look at her. “What?”
“Your oil heiress?”
I shoved my dripping hair off my forehead. “Rachel?”
“Yes, Rachel from the club.”
I caught her rolling her eyes under the overhead light.
Her teeth chattered as she said, “The one you swore you didn’t want to marry.”
I shook my head. “It’s not like that.”
“I saw the pictures, and it definitely looked like that.”
“Keeping tabs on me, huh?”
“Ugh.” She stomped toward the castle, her heels swinging between two fingers.
I followed a few steps behind her.
She was here. Alive.
And I’d almost lost her for real.
Not lost her to Calira. Not lost her because I refused to forgive her.
Actually lost her.
No more secretly Googling her name. No more listening to her voicemails without answering. No more wondering what she was doing halfway across the world.
It wasn’t until we slipped into a narrow alley between two towering buildings that I grabbed her wrist. She looked back just as I turned her toward me, her back meeting the stone wall.
I couldn’t stop myself.
Just one last time.
I’d been telling myself that all fucking day.
I caught her around the waist, my wet sleeve scraping against the stone as I leaned into her.
She gasped against my lips, but the shock of what I’d done didn’t last long before she kissed me back. I groaned into her mouth when her tongue met mine.
I cradled her face in both hands as we kissed beneath the dim alley lights, seawater dripping from every inch of us. A part of me believed if I let go, she’d disappear forever.
“Wait.” She pushed against my shoulder. “I can’t … I don’t kiss guys with girlfriends.”
“Rachel isn’t my girlfriend.”
She didn’t immediately call me a liar. I took that as a win.
“She’s nothing to me. I don’t do girlfriends.”
“Sure acted like a boyfriend to me.”
“You’re right. I don’t. Unless it’s you.”
“But that’s over now,” she whispered against my lips.
“I don’t want to talk about this in some alley.” I rested my forehead against hers. “Come back with me tonight.”
“No.” Her voice was quiet. “I’m not having a one night stand with you just to go back to you hating me again tomorrow.”
She ducked her head under my arm and put space between us. “Goodnight, Brooks. Have a nice life. I hope you get that presidential bid one day.”
She took off running toward the castle.
I stayed in the alley and watched her go.
It wasn’t because I didn’t want to chase her. God, did I want to.
But she was right. One night wouldn’t fix us.
It’d only give me another version of her to lose.