Page 82 of The Incendiary

“You’ve never loved anyone before?”

“No one.” It was true. Not even Eden. She and Isaac had always been good to me, but I wasn’t sure what they’d felt for me was love. Eden was a hard woman, and love wasn’t a word to be tossed around.

“If you’ve never loved anyone before, how do you know you love me?”

My gods, this girl.

“Because you’re the first thing I think about when I wake up in the morning and the last thing I think about before I go to sleep,” I told her. “I dream of you, and when I can’t sleep, I lay awake thinking of you and wishing I was with you. I know I love you because when I walk past the florist’s cart on the way to the market, I remember that your favorite flowers are blue, so I buy some and put them in a shitty little vase on the table in my loft. I don’t even know if you’ll come by and see them, but they make me think of you. And that’s all I ever want to be doing. Thinking of you.”

I reached for her, but she retreated, eyes still narrowed. I took the blow and pressed on.

“I know I love you because every time you leave me, I start counting down the minutes until I get to see you again. You consume my existence, and nothing has ever made me feel so alive.” I shook my head, reveling in the awe she made me feel. “When I’m with you, I’m in heaven. When I’m not, I’m in hell.”

Her shoulders relaxed. The gods had reserved some mercy for me, after all.

“You’re everything to me, Ella,” I promised her. “There’s no one else. There never will be anyone else.”

She swallowed thickly. “No one has ever said anything like that to me before.”

If they had, I’d need their names to ensure they never breathed her air again. I crossed my arms and leaned against the doorframe. “Any man that doesn’t treat you like a goddess is a fucking imbecile who doesn’t deserve you.” Not that I deserved her. I didn’t, but at least I knew as much.

“Do you forgive me?”

She frowned. “You didn’t actually do anything.”

“I did. The asshole I was before I met you came back to hurt you. I made you feel like less. That shouldn’t ever happen, and I’m sorry.”

She softened. “I forgive you.”

“Thank the gods.” I rested my arm over the doorframe and took inventory of the tiny room. “Why were you in the dark? In a closet?”

She retreated with a sly little smile on her beautiful face. “I’ve always liked the dark. It’s soothing.”

I hummed. “Are you going to keep running away from me, Princess?”

She scowled playfully. I bit my tongue to keep from grinning at the fire I saw there. She hated being called that, but I’d rather her burn me to ash than feel what she felt five minutes ago.

“What are you going to do about it?” Her lips twitched, unable to suppress her joy. And she shouldn’t. Nothing about her needed to be suppressed.

“Follow you.” I took another step forward.

“Into the dark?”

“Into the dark,” I repeated. “Into flames. Into a horde of bloodthirsty monsters. Into eternity. You name it.”

She glanced to a door on her left that led outside. “And what if I run out that door?”

“I’ll chase you.”

She lifted her chin, adorably defiant. “You won’t catch me.”

A low growl rumbled out of my chest from somewhere deep, primal, and awoken only by her. I let the door swing shut, and we were engulfed in darkness. “Oh, I think I’ll catch you, Ella.”

“No. I’m very fast.”

“I’m faster. And I wouldn’t stop.”

I heard her scoff. “You’d stop. I think you’d find your limit.”