Page 5

Delilah doesn’t stir as I reach around her limp body, draped across my chest. I lift her old sheet music from the graveyard she’s created under her bed.

I only need four more pages to get her birthday present ready.

Since she hates real flowers because they’re pointless, she’ll have an ever-living arrangement full of all the compositions she’s created.

Like a physical reminder that she gets better every day.

For once, I want her to be excited about the day rather than using it as a countdown to get away from her parents. It’s the day that commemorates her existence, and she’s too good not to be celebrated.

She shifts on my chest and buries her face into the crook of my neck. I stuff her sheet music under my jeans and press my lips to the top of her head. She’ll wake up soon. Then, I’ll be forced to sneak out of her house, so her parents don’t confuse me for Asher again.

The guilt I used to have has disappeared. Especially when she’s like this, because she was mine first. If she wasn’t, this wouldn’t be so right. We’d both be tormented by guilt.

Asher sees Delilah as a pawn or some business asset. He doesn’t love her. Not like I do, but she refuses to leave him.

I spent the first nine months of my existence in his shadow, so what’s the rest of my life as long as I have her?

She’s adorable like this as she lifts her hand and cups my cheek before her eyes have even opened. “You stayed,” she whispers, more to herself, before she rolls her head to look up at me. “Morning, baby.”

The smile on her face will be protected with my life. But she hasn’t said my name, and there will always be a voice in the back of my head telling me she sees Asher before she sees me. It’s his voice too, and she knows it. Her eyes dim, but she hides her emotions as she forces herself to smile.

“Kane, no morning for me?” she asks.

I dip my head and press my lips to her cheek. Her skin warms below my lips. This shy version of her is just mine. There are three specific words sitting on the tip of my tongue, and I keep my lips against her skin to force them back.

As with everything, Delilah has some divinity that allows her to know my thoughts.

She nuzzles closer, forcing me to move my head back.

Once she’s settled on my chest, she kisses directly over my heart and looks up at me with bright eyes.

Her voice is low and weighted, but the emotion in her eyes sets a fire in my chest.

“I know it’s wrong, but I love you. Kane, I love you more than myself and sometimes it scares the shit out of me because I don’t know who I’d be if I ever lost you.”

Brushing her hair out of her face, I lean down and whisper, “You’ll never lose me. I’ve been in love with you ever since you asked me if I was your prince. I didn’t even know what it meant, but I knew what I wanted to be when I was older.”

“And what was that?”

“Isn’t it obvious?” I ask back. She slowly shakes her head and I answer easily, “Yours.”