Page 77 of Blind Devotion

My fist crunched against the side of his cheek. His body twisted with the hit.

“SheisPersetta!” I yelled.

His cheek was red, and a thin trail of blood seeped from his nose. He wiped a finger underneath it, his gaze incredulous.

“What did you just say?” he asked slowly.

I swept a hand down my face. I needed another drink for this. We both did. After pouring two more, I handed him a glass and nursed my own.

“You heard me.” You could have heard a pin drop in the silence. “I think I knew. I think in some way I recognized her from the very first moment. That’s why I never could do it. There was always a reason not to.”

“Well, shit.” He collapsed in a chair, all anger drained out of him.

No better word for it. I raised my glass in a toast. “Cheers to that.”

“Does she know?”

“She remembers that much now.”

“And what? What I witnessed was the happy reunion? After everything?”

“No, that hasn’t come up.”

He snorted. “You mean she doesn’t know.”

I didn’t contradict him.

“That’ll go over well.”

“I asked her to marry me.”

He snickered. “Moving a little fast, aren’t you?”

“Am I?” It didn’t feel like it. Not after our history. Not after knowing what she’d been through without me. Not after sitting at her bedside for weeks. Certainly not after our time together the last ten days. Everything about this past week and a half was better than anything that came before. She was the calm in my storm. My beacon of light within the abyss of my soul. We were always meant to go down this path. We just took an unintentional detour.

“Congratulations are in order, then.”

“She turned me down.” I hated admitting that. I tipped my glass back, surprised to find it empty.

“Ah, not the little puppy that nipped at your heels anymore, is she?” he jeered.

“No,” I conceded without any remorse. I liked her bite. “It’ll happen. I’ll force her down the aisle if I have to.”

“That’s sure to go well. You don’t care that she—” He gestured to his face.

“No, and nobody else better say a damn word about it, or I’ll start collecting eyeballs.”

“Do you want a spoon or knife?”

Just like that, I knew this argument was behind us. “I was planning on using my fingers.”

“Too much cleanup.”

“It’s the suffering I want. No one will ever make her feel like less.”

“The world is a cruel place. You know it. I know it. Persetta’s lived it. You can’t protect her from everything.”

“Yes, I can.”