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Chapter 22
My pulse poundsthrough me so hard that I can’t catch my breath.
Outside, his text said.
Does that mean he’s really here?
I crash out of my bed and stumble to my window, swooshing aside the curtain, and…yes. There he is standing under a streetlight—Cage Bryant, his brown hair combed back, and he’s wearing a suit, and…
And he’s holding a large bouquet of flowers.
Am I dreaming again? But it must be a good dream this time, not a Times Square marquee nightmare in which Cage is turning his back on me as he did every time I thought we’d gotten intimate.
I press my fingertips against the windowpane, just to make sure everything is real.
Cage lowers the flowers as he sees me.
As a rush of warmth swamps me, I give a little cry of pure joy, and I stop thinking and wallowing. I stop telling myself that it’s actually a good thing Cage and I broke up, and then I’m running, running out of my room and bursting out the front door and taking the outside staircase, grasping at the rail, almost falling in my haste.
I speed to the front of my apartment building then to that streetlight, and even as my bare feet hit the pavement and the cool night air chills my skin because I’m only wearing an oversized T-shirt, I don’t care.
I only see Cage lowering the flowers to his side, his eyes shining with emotion as I launch myself at him.
He catches me, and I throw my arms around him, smelling his skin, his everything. Him.
He holds me so tightly that I can’t breathe. Then he murmurs into my ear.
“Karini… God, Karini…”
With my chest crushed to his, I feel our hearts beating together, as if they’re entangled, and even when I let go and drop to the ground, pulling back from him, he doesn’t release me.
He strokes my cheek tenderly, and I can’t stop looking at him, taking him in, feeling our pulses slap the air because they’re pounding so hard.
“I haven’t stopped thinking about you for one second since you left,” he whispers roughly. “Karini, I was so wrong to send you away that night.”
“You didn’t send me away—”
“Yes, I did.” He’s still touching my face, and there’s no trace of darkness in his gaze, not like there was before. His blue eyes are clear, intense against the tan of his skin under the light of the streetlamp. “I basically sent you away after you opened up and told me everything about those pictures and videos from Liam. I shut you out completely.”
I’m crying again. Jeez, I’m a leaking mess with tears running down my face, but they’re happy, cleansing tears, because Cage is here. He’s come to me with flowers and clear eyes and a heart that seems to be bared to me.
And he’s touching me as if I’m the most precious thing imaginable to him.
I shake my head at his confessions. “Cage, I know why you pushed me away.”
“No, you don’t. But I want to tell you. That’s why I came here, Karini, so you could hear me out. I need you to do that.”
He pushes my hair back from my face, and now there’s something different in his eyes. Raw fear.
I slip my hands down his strong arms, bracing myself to finally hear why Cage can get so dark. Whatever it is though, I’m never going anywhere.
No more running…no more hiding.
The light of the full moon shows me everything in his gaze as he looks deeply into me. His low voice echoes off the lonely streets, almost as if we’re the only two people left in this world.
“Remember the night I mentioned my parents to you?” he asks quietly.
“Yes, and you never mentioned them again.” It was the first night we were together, but he shut himself down after that.