Page 15 of Voyage with the Reclusive Billionaire

Maybe I didn’t exactly get a confession out of Corvan, but it wasn’t nothing, either. I know his full name now. I know that he has an ex out there somewhere, Jade, who ruined his reputation. She’s the reason he spent years alone, isolated in the woods.

But she’s also the reason I met Corvan. She’s the reason he’s on this cruise in the first place, trying to find himself a place among people once more. She’s the reason that I’m wondering more and more if, maybe, I wasn’t supposed to end up with Adam—but with Cor.

I knew when Adam proposed that he and I didn’t have the kind of storybook romance that all little girls hope to find. That they expect. But I knew that what we had was stable and comfortable and that I did love him, in a soft and quiet way, and I believed that he loved me in his own way, as well.

Just not enough.

“Eliza?” Corvan’s voice brings me out of my thoughts, his tone curious, maybe a little worried. “You alright?”

I nod, smiling up at him. “I was just thinking.”

“About?” he prompts.

About you. About how good you could be for me and about how much I wish you could be for me. I was thinking about how much stronger my emotions are for you than they ever were for Adam and how I don’t know if I’ll be able to go back to life before I knew you and pretend we’d never met at all. “About making sure I don’t trip and eat shit in front of you for the third time.”

He laughs, knuckles brushing mine as we walk. Would he let me hold his hand if I tried?

“Second and a half, really,” he says. “I caught you last time, remember?”

“Do I remember that you literally saved my life on our last hike? Yes, that does ring a bell.”

One of his shining grins. The kind I’ve only seen directed at me, the kind that I wish was meant for me to keep forever. And then he’s grabbing my hand. Twining our fingers together despite how clammy both of our palms are from sweating our way through this gorgeous, temperate forest. “No need to worry now,” Corvan says, winking.

I swear my heart orgasms.

I snort out a laugh but tuck in a little closer to him, breathing in his scent, drowning in the way it feels to be this close to him. It’s not normal. It can’t be. Feeling this deeply for someone after knowing them for a handful of days is… scary. It’s so fucking scary because I can’t imagine how he might possibly feel the same way, especially when we’re never going to see each other after this cruise.

And yet.

And yet there’s hope. Which I cling to just as desperately as I cling to his hand.

His thumb brushes against the back of my hand as we walk. He says, “Are you sure you’re okay with this?”

“With what?” I ask.

“With… with not knowing. I don’t want you to feel like it’s your only option. If you want to know, I’ll tell you. I just…”

“Cor, of course I want to know. But not when you still feel the need to say ‘I just.’”

His dark eyes latch onto mine. There is only vulnerable honesty when he says, “I just don’t want to lose you before I have to.”

I feel my body warm under his gaze. “You won’t.”

“You can’t know that.”

“I know what I feel.” My words are strong, unguarded. I didn’t have the chance to reel them in before they’d spiraled out of me, into the air around us. I feel them as if they are physical weights pressing down on my chest.

Corvan stares at me as my cheeks heat. Reading emotions on my face that I don’t know how to hide. Unlike Corvan, who is good at hiding his every thought from me.

He glances ahead at the rest of the tourists and pulls me to a stop. “Eliza.”

“Don’t.” I shake my head. “Forget I said anything.”

“If you think I could ever forget a word out of your mouth, then you and I have a lot to talk about.”

“I thought that was already established.”

He gives me a flat look. “Hilarious.” But there’s amusement curling at the corners of his lips. He tugs me away from the trail and into the trees. “Come on.”

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