Page 104 of Far From Sherwood Forest

“Well, the prince hates me as much as the Sheriff once did. Meaning he’s not going to go easy on me. He and all his guards are going to want to hurt me.”

Something ice cold settles in my bones.

Fuck. How had I not thought of that before?

“And considering you were just worried you were too rough with me…”

I take a step back from him, stumbling over my own two feet. I shake my head as my heart beats in my throat. “We need another plan.”

“It’s too late for that, Henry,” he says, following after me.

Getting in his face, I growl, “Iwon’tlet them hurt you.”

He places his hand on my chest, his fingers teasing my bare skin through the hair that peeks out from the collar of my shirt. His touch soothes me, but it’s not nearly enough.

“If we’re going to do what we need to do, then you might not have a choice.”

Again, I shake my head. “Ican’tlet them hurt you, Robin.”

“Just do what you did this morning. Get in the mindset of the Sheriff. Channel him. He used to love hurting me, and he wouldn’t give a fuck if anyone else hurt me too.”

“It’s not that easy,” I tell him, my irritation growing. “I can’t do that now.”

“Why not?!”

“Because I’m fucking in love with you!”

The words hang in the air, sudden and raw and now suspended between us, like a step off a ledge, not knowing if there’s anything solid beneath.

Robin’s hand falls, his eyes wide.

The echo of my confession folds into the thick silence between us. The only sound throughout the surrounding forest is that of harsh, heavy breathing. It’s mine because Robin isn’t breathing at all. Fear replaces his touch, clawing at the place where his hand just was but from the inside.

“You…”

His shaky voice dies like it gets stuck somewhere on the way up, and the uncertainty of what he wants to say crawls through my veins like cold smoke. It curls up and coils around my throat like the phantom touch of a noose…

I turn away, unable to bear the weight of that rope a second time. I get two steps before Robin’s voice returns to stop me, slightly more steady than before.

“Don’t you fucking dare.”

I made him a promise.

So I come to an abrupt stop, but I can’t bring myself to face him.

“Don’t you dare say that to me and then walk away. Look at me.”

I can’t.

“Henry, look at me!”

That fear keeps scratching and biting, making my insides bleed. I just handed Robin my heart, and now he has the power to crush it, to string it up and let it fall. He could destroy me so easily, and this time I don’t think I could survive it.

Even though those words came spilling from my lips before I could catch them, I meant them.

I love him.

I don’t know when it happened. I don’t think I even knew it had until I heard it come from my own mouth. While I thought he was only taking up more and more space in my mind this entire time, it turns out he was carving himself a home in my heart too.