Page 323 of Once Upon a Fable

But I didn’t know if I had the strength to be that again.

“Kas...” Gemma licked her lips, her blond hair clean and fresh, her body drugging me the longer we stood so close. “You’ve gone white.”

I gulped.

I felt feverish and twitchy.

I wanted to run, to strike, to fuck, to cry.

I wanted her to touch me, all while I wanted her to get far away from me.

I didn’t understand what was happening.

How could I stand so still, all while my thoughts unraveled? How could my heart race with anger directed at everyone,everything, yet my cock hardened with a sudden desperation?

Lust twisted with trust, granting an intoxicating, bone-deep knowledge that I could be true with her.

I could talk to her, and she wouldn’t run.

I could share what I’d done and how I’d been treated, and she wouldn’t look at me as if I was dirty or broken.

It would be a gift.

A curse.

A brand new experience that would probably break me.

“I...I don’t know what to say.” I shrugged, drawn to her body, her eyes, her goodness. For the first time in my life, I wanted to try out honesty. I didn’t want to filter, choosing what to say in order to protect the family I’d chosen to guard. I wanted to speak from my heart even though it fucking terrified me.

“You don’t have to say a thing.” She inched closer until our feet touched and heat ignited hotter between us. “Do you want me to let you go?” Her fingers curled around the chain, tugging on my waist.

Did I?

Yes.

No.

Christ, I don’t know.

“What do you want, Kas?” she whispered. “You’re scaring me, and not in the usual way. You’re impossibly still, yet I know your mind is racing. I see it in your eyes. In the way you clench your jaw and brace your shoulders. You’re fighting something, and I don’t know how to help you.”

I sucked in a heavy breath. “Would you? Help me? If you knew what I’m struggling with? Even after everything?”

She nodded instantly, her hair dancing in the sunlight. “Always.”

Her answer rolled my shoulders with yet another layer of unfathomable emotion.

I didn’t deserve this woman.

Not even a scrap of her.

Whatever had happened last night might always be erased from me, but somehow, we were no longer strangers, no longer enemies.

She had the power to become my fucking everything.

I would fight to the death for her. I would take any beating. I would put myself between her and every monster imaginable.

I would give her everything, and wasn’t that the crux of my problem?