Page 225 of Sage Haven

At the wild, reckless hope in her eyes.

Hope I didn’t deserve. Hope I couldn’t kill.

“…Okay.” The word was gravel in my throat.

She stared at me, breath hitching and I didn’t let myself think.

I leaned in, pressing my forehead to hers, breathing her in like oxygen. “I won’t leave you.”

I didn’t know if it was true. Didn’t know if I could keep that promise.

But I had to try. Because I couldn’t watch the light fade from her eyes again.

I’d rather it consume me instead.

And it did.

That was the first time I ever lied to her.

51

SAGE

Ishould have walkedaway.

I told myself that probably a thousand times those last few days. Maybe more. Every breath I took in his presence had felt like a warning.

He was waiting to bolt. I could feel it.

I should have gotten myself out before it got this far—before his name carved into my memory like it had always belonged there. Before his hands knew the shape of me, the pulse of me, better than I did.

But it was already too late.

Reich was a storm I had no desire to escape. A wildfire I was willing to burn in. His chaos had become my sanctuary. And his darkness, a place I wanted to crawl inside of and never leave.

No matter how many times I reminded myself that this was dangerous, that we were dangerous together, I kept coming back. Kept choosing him.

Because the truth was, I didn’t want to stop.

Even if it destroyed us. Even if it destroyed me.

I sucked in a shaky breath, my pulse hammering at my throat as I stepped closer. Every inch between us crackled, thick with tension, charged with everything we wouldn’t say.

Couldn’t say.

Ifelt the heat radiating from his skin, tasted the weight of the unspoken words hanging between us like smoke that refused to clear.

His jaw was tight, and his hands curled into fists at his sides like he was holding himself together by sheer will. But I could see the tremble in his fingers, the strain in his shoulders as he held me close.

He was breaking.

And so was I.

“You make me insane,” I breathed, as my palms fisted against the hard wall of his chest.

I was torn between escape and surrender.

And I feared either would be the end of me.