Page 125 of The Shadows Between Us
I’m a little worried by his silence at my revelation, but I give him the time he needs to process everything. I don’t say anything. Just let him focus on me if that’s what he needs right now.
“I’m relieved that it’s over,” he says at last. “I really am. But I’m also done with this.”
I swallow, and I’m certain Kallias must feel the sudden tension in me. “Done with what?”
I don’t know what I’ll do if he says me.
His hands are in my hair now, letting the strands sift through his fingers. “The whole night, I watched you from afar, save at the end, when I couldn’t stand it any longer. And just now? I stayed hidden from a little girl for fear that someone would be able to touch me.” He gives one shake of his head. “It doesn’t matter what precautions I take. I could lock myself up in a concrete box so nothing could ever hurt me, but that’s no way to live.
“Being king comes with risks. I’m willing to take those. In the end it’s worth it.” He looks at me now. “You are worth it, Alessandra. I’m done living separately from everyone else. My parents’ murderers willfinally be brought to justice. But even if they weren’t, I would still make this choice.”
“What choice?”
His hand comes down to the side of my face, and he turns me, tilting my mouth upward.
I draw in a startled breath, and Kallias uses that parting to place his lips around my lower lip. He licks lightly at my skin as he gently pulls upward.
Forgetting my injured feet, I stand and shove him so hard, I nearly fall over in the almost-full tub.
I take the time to shut off the water before stepping out on the other side, keeping the basin between us.
But it’s already too late.
“What did you do?” I yell.
“I kissed you,” he answers simply.
“Youtouchedme.”
He stands straight, unafraid of this fight, it would seem. “Weren’t you listening to me? I’m done with it all! I’m not my father. I’m not going to spend my life alone so I can reach a hundred. Three hundred. A millennium. I don’t care about a long life anymore. I can’t stand being alone for one second longer. I can’t stand being apart from you for one second longer.” His face falls as something occurs to him. “But if you don’t feel the same way, I’m sorry I accosted you.”
Water pools around me on the floor from my dress, but I ignore it. “The same way,” I repeat. “How? How do you feel?”
Kallias reaches into a pocket of his dress pants and pulls out a folded parchment. “I wrote it on paper.” He opens it, looks at the words, and shakes his head. “I can’t read it aloud. It’s for you to read. Later. Really, I just wanted to prove I could write a better one than Eliades. But I’ll leave it here and go.”
He turns around and places the letter on a nightstand before heading toward his room.
“Kallias Maheras, don’t you dare leave me right now.”
He pauses and manages to find my eyes.
“Tell me,” I say. “You don’t need to read a letter. Just tell me.”
He closes his hands into fists at his sides. “I want you.”
I wait for him to say more. When he doesn’t, I say, “Surely you can do better than that.”
He narrows his eyes at the challenge. “I’m done watching you flirt with other men. I’m sick of it. I don’t want you kissing or touching anyone but me.”
I keep a straight face as I rub one hand up my other arm. “That’s awfully selfish of you.”
“You be quiet now. I’m not done talking. You wanted me to say it. So I’ll say it all. Selfish or not.
“When I first saw you, it infuriated me that you never looked at me. Not once during that inane ball. It wasn’t until I approached you that you deigned to meet my eyes. And then you insulted me. You mocked me every chance you got. You didn’t bow and roll over like every other human alive. You challenged me.
“That’s when I first knew I was doomed.” He takes a step forward. “And then we spent all those meals together, separated by a damned table. And you told me about your dreams. About your fears. And I wanted nothing more than to grant your dreams and remove your fears.”
He takes another step. “You asked to spend more time with me. It was the one thing I thought I could not give. Because if I spent more time with you, I would fall for you even harder. This girl who didn’t care that I was a king. But then you spent that evening with Leandros, and I realized the one thing worse than not having you was not having you and watching you be with someone else. So I tortured myself by spending more time with you.
