Page 52 of The Lies We Believe

“S-she s-said…” He chewed on his lip as his rough voice cracked and gave out before trying again. “She s-said…I-I’d have m…mor…t-time.”

“Who did?” I whispered, not wanting to hear the name I knew he was going to say. The hurt and betrayal was written into every line, cut and bruise on his beautiful face.

“D-Dahlia?—”

My grip tightened unintentionally, holding him in place with more force than I’d intended. “That’s why you left?!” I demanded incredulously. “You left me to go back to her?! After everything she’d done to you,” I bellowed, fear and rage consuming me. “Why, River? Why the fuck would you do that? Why put yourself at risk like that?”

“B-b-because,” he choked out.

“Because what? Am I not enough for you? Is this house—my home—not enough?” I threw my arms out wide, gesturing to the walls I’d spent my life trying to afford. My hands felt the absence of him like a missing limb.

“N-no…t…that’s..n-not…it.”

“Then what is it?” I growled, my sanity clinging on by a tattered thread. “I would give you the world, and you walk through fire back to the woman you described as the devil.”

“No!” River’s hands sunk into his wild hair, pulling and yanking at the dark strands out until they clung to his clammy fingers. Snot and tears mingled on his face and coated his blood-red lips. “I went to her FOR YOU!” he screamed. His shattered voice knocked the wind out of my sails, and I collapsed on the floor, shattered and broken.

I stared up at him from my prone position. “Why?” I whispered, too scared to even speak. Why would he put himself in her path and face her wrath again? It didn’t make a lick of sense. The more we’d learned about Dahlia, the more depraved and dangerous she’d become. The more I thought about it, the more unstable his actions seemed.

River all but fell off his stool into my lap. The impact must have been agony when his shredded skin crashed into my legs, but he didn’t make a sound as he crawled up my legs and wrapped himself around me until his wet lips brushed my ear.

“I did it for you,” he breathed. “I knew she’d be watching for me. I wanted to help.” His words spilled at an unintelligible speed, as silent as the grave, but I felt them all the way to the marrow of my bones. “I wanted you to win. I needed you to be safe. I was prepared to die so you could end her and save countless lives. S-so you could save others from ever having to experience the life I’ve had.”

Shock rippled through me. Every word landed like a bullet ripping through my skin. I wrapped my hand around his throatand maneuvered him until I could look him in the eye. “Why would you sacrifice yourself for me?”

“B-be…cause y-you’re m-my…h-heart.”

Fuck. Me. The world stopped turning. We hung suspended in our own timeline as his fractured words echoed in my head. Tentative hope bled from him into me, stealing the air from my lungs. I didn’t have pretty words gilded in gold. I couldn’t offer him the world. All I had was raw, pure, unadulterated emotion, and the only thing standing between us and our happy ending was reality.

I crashed my mouth to his, tasting his tears and his pain, and swallowed them down. My tongue teased across the seam of his lips, making him gasp and open so delicately for me. My tongue wrapped around his, and it was like our souls reunited. Every wild and turbulent emotion in me faded away to a gentle ocean lapping at the shore.

River was my safe place.

My protector.

My home.

He was everything I needed and everything I never knew I did. We were night and day, but it was as if every road I’d taken had led me back to him. My true north. The only person in this world who could truly understand me, who fought for me even when he’d given up on himself. He was precious and pure. He was worthy of love and deserved to be cherished above anything—no, anyone—else.

His unique taste exploded across my tongue, and he melted in my arms, fusing himself with me. His grip tightened around me as his arms wrapped around my neck, his legs locked around my waist, and we lost ourselves in a synchronicity of reunited lovers. We gave confession to each other, bared our shortcomings, our sins, and our failings through this union of flesh that went so much deeper than a mere kiss. Every brush ofhis lips resonated with my soul, binding us together in perfect symbiosis.

“Angel,” I murmured against his kiss-swollen lips. “We need to move. This can’t be comfortable for you.”

River snorted indignantly. “I-I d…don’t…c-care.” Tension filled his arms as he forced every painful sound from his mouth.

“Stop being a martyr.” Brushing a chaste kiss against his lips, I tucked my feet under us slowly so I could lever us up off the floor and walked over to the couch. “What do you need, Riv?” My lips teased across his damp forehead in a show of affection that was not quite a kiss.

River sighed, releasing his death grip on my hair and settled his still-trembling hands on my shoulders. I watched them rise and fall as he focused on getting his staccato breathing under control. His eyes, although closed, moved from side to side like rapid fire until a full-body shudder worked its way through his body from his head to his feet.

Bottomless forest green eyes fluttered open, a maelstrom churning in their depths. I felt like I was drowning and flying in them, in him, simultaneously. “S-stay…w…with me. H-hold…m…me.”

“I’m not going anywhere.” I brushed back the dark stands that clung to his brow before they fell in his raw eyes. “I’m so, so sorry about Max.”

“I-its m-my f…fault.” I looked at him in confusion. Had Dahlia twisted his mind so much he believed every one of her actions was his fault?

“It’s not your—” He held his hand over my mouth and shook his head.

His Adam’s apple rolled in his throat as he swallowed. “I-I failed.” He huffed a frustrated breath and tapped his throat.

---