Total pages in book: 125
Estimated words: 114551 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 573(@200wpm)___ 458(@250wpm)___ 382(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 114551 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 573(@200wpm)___ 458(@250wpm)___ 382(@300wpm)
I shake my head. “You could have never let me down,” I tell him. “These past two months have been some of the hardest times of my life. The things I’ve had to do and witness in the name of survival have terrified me, but you’ve been there every step of the way, giving me life and putting a smile on my face despite my darkest days. I love you, Dalton, and if I had the rest of my life ahead of me, I would happily live every single one of those days with you.”
Dalton takes my face in his hands, tilting my chin up toward his and kissing me deeply, his lips lingering on mine as the tears roll down my cheeks. Breaking our kiss, he drops his forehead back to mine as he takes my hand in his before sliding a beautiful ring onto my finger.
My eyes widen, taking it in as I gaze at the beautiful diamond ring. “I . . . I don’t understand,” I tell him, gazing up into those conflicted blue eyes.
“I fucking love you, Oakley, and I know this might not mean anything now, but I need you to know that I see my whole future in your eyes. If I had my way, I would run with you now, take you away from all of this and truly make you mine. I would marry you in a heartbeat, Firefly, and while this ring is nothing but a token, stolen off the finger of another woman, I want you to take it with you.”
My brows furrow, and I wipe away my tears as I listen to his words, his heart on his sleeve. “When Zade plunges that knife into your chest and the agony is unbearable, when you’re ready to give up and feel yourself slipping away, I want you to hold this ring and remember how much I love you. Remember how much you mean to me and how your smile alone could light the whole freaking world.”
My tears come faster, and I bury my face against his chest, my heart shattering into a million pieces. “I’m going to see you again, Firefly. I promise you that,” he says. “Whether it be ten years from now or next week. This isn’t the end for us. We’ll come together in another life, and when we do, we’ll finally get the ending we deserve.”
I nod against his chest when a hand falls to my lower back, and I look up to find Sawyer at my side and reluctantly step out of Dalton’s arms, straight into Sawyer’s loving ones. He rests his chin against my head for a moment, the two of us so content in one another’s arms. “I’ve known this was coming since the very beginning, yet no amount of time could have prepared me for how much this hurts,” he tells me. “I truly thought that we would have found a way to save you, and I gave you my word. I told you I would save you, and now I have to sit back and watch as Zade takes you away.”
My hands slip up the back of his shirt, my palms against his bare skin, not wanting to let go. “It wasn’t fair of me to demand that you give me your word to save me,” I tell him. “It was an impossible task, and I put the weight of the world on your shoulders when you were already grieving the loss of your father and dealing with Cara’s initiation. I never should have done that.”
“I’m not going to allow you to apologize for trying everything you could to save yourself,” he tells me. “I would have done the same thing. I just hate that I resisted you so much in the beginning. I wasted so much time when I could have been standing at your side, but I hate it even more that we’ve come this far and I’m only now for the first time telling you how much I love you.”
My eyes widen, lifting my gaze to his, hating the devastation in his eyes, but damn, it’s so identical to mine. “You do?” I whisper, the tiniest sliver of my shattered heart healing. His words mean so much more than he could ever know.
“I do, and you damn well know it,” he tells me, pulling me in even closer. “Losing you is going to fucking destroy me.”
Pushing up on my tippy toes, I press my lips to his and kiss him with everything I’ve got, tasting my tears as they roll down my cheeks. “God, I wish I had the chance to live the rest of my life with you.”
“You don’t know how fucking badly I wish we could.”
“Oakley,” Dalton murmurs, drawing my attention. I glance up to meet his shattered stare, and as I do, he nods toward the balcony to where Easton stands out in the night, his hands braced against the railing and his head hung low.