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“I don’t particularly like your weakness. In your eyes, am I really that cruel? Someone who destroys you?”
“You’re the only one who can.” He lay down beside me and started stroking my hair. His hazy gaze studied me carefully. “I only want you to destroy me. I want you to always look at me. Now… I can want it. I can deserve you.”
“Deserve me?” I whispered. I reached out to lie beside him, making us face each other.
“Yes. The moment you die… I could take my own life too.”
“Raymond!”
He didn’t care my sorrowful tone, he lifted his fingers and examined them. He looked at his now-severed pinky with admiration. “Now… I can reach you anytime, anywhere.”
I joined my hands with his. Leisurely, he raised our intertwined hands and stared at them. He must have recalled a memory because his eyes glistened again. Then he closed them, brought our joined hands to his lips, and kissed them long.
In such a peaceful, warm moment, my lips curved upward. As he kept kissing my fingers, I whispered back. “It’s over now. We’ll be together forever.”
His long lashes trembled, and when his eyes found mine, I swallowed hard.
“Right. Forever.” He straightened and pressed his hands on either side of me, trapping me in his arms. “Then why didn’t you keep your promise?”
His voice came out low like a lullaby, hypnotic like a spell. I averted my gaze to avoid falling under its power.
“I… tried. But everything was… too much.
“Why didn’t you talk to me?” His fingers grazed my cheeks, and everywhere they touched, my nerves caught fire, sparking like live wire.
“I… waited for you to notice. I should have spoken, I know, but…”
“You chose to lie to me instead.” He leaned down and left a tiny kiss on my nose. His half-lidded eyes seemed fully aware of the effect he was having on me; he was calm and steady now. “Just like you did with others… you played a role with me, too. Even though I told you there was no need. Even though… you said I was your everything…”
A pained expression crossed his face, his sharp jaw tightened, and he swallowed. He gently kissed my lips, tasting me with a confidence of someone who knew exactly what he wanted. He took my lower lip between his teeth and began to suck, toying with me.
“How can I know you won’t do the same thing?” he murmured with bedroom eyes, and I could only swallow hard. A smoldering look settled in my face.
“I… I won’t. I’ll always be honest with you. I won’t vanish from your sight.”
“You won’t hide your feelings from me.” he added.
“And you’ll try to uncover them.”
His thin brows knitted. “You think I didn’t? That I didn’t see? I did. But I said to myself… My Mina wouldn’t do that to me. She wouldn’t try to trick me.” He rose again, aligning our faces and studying me intently. “But you broke the trust between us, Mina. You shattered our eternity.”
“I’m sorry, I… I test people, and…”
“You decide if they’re worthy of you or not.”
“No! It’s not like that. I just wanted to be understood, and…”
My words trailed off as he began to suckle my nipple slowly. I couldn’t stay aroused and rational at the same time.
“It doesn’t matter.” I said finally. “I’ve moved past that. It was before, now… now…”
I shivered again as he licked my navel in a circular motion and pressed kisses into my skin.
“Now what? Did I pass the test?”
“No, no test…” I didn’t know what I was saying, or what I meant. I was aroused again, and I wanted to rub against something and caress my needy spaces. As if he sensed it, his hands began to stroke my clit gently, and moments later, his long fingers slipped inside me. It had felt good before, but now he wasn’t hitting the right spots. I squirmed, my face must have twisted in a way I didn’t intend, because he stopped.
And in the very next moment, he spun me around by my waist with just one arm.
