Page 160 of I Was Always Yours (RCA: Royal Crown Academy)

He tilts his head and he kisses me like I mean the world to him, his lips moving in expert, confident strokes against mine. I can’t help but kiss him back as I fall into him. His hand is on my cheek and I cup it with mine as he pulls back with a pleased smile curving his lips.

“Bye,” I say as he picks up his bag and walks to the door, unsuspecting that this is the forever type of goodbye.

Chapter 46

Phoenix

On my way to the airport, I text Claire and ask her to take care of Six while I’m gone. I include directives to make her carrot ginger soup, her favorite, and bring her any pharmacy items she deems suitable for a stomach ache.

I don’t like leaving Six when she’s not feeling well. Even though she wasn’t warm to the touch, there was obviously something off. She’d looked pale and had dark circles under her eyes when I’d come out of the shower and she’d seemed… frail somehow. Something had pulled inside me, telling me not to leave.

A big part of me is still considering canceling this trip and staying with her, especially now that this contract with the Koreans isn’t as important as it once was.

Over the past months, my hatred of my parents fueled my ambitions to break away from them and to use this contract as a stepping stone to branching out on my own.

But things have changed.

Dramatically, drastically, and almost overnight.

I don’t know what my plan or path forward is, if I’ll continue working within my family’s syndicate or not, but one thing is crystal clear.

I’m no longer breaking off my engagement.

I’m finally ready to admit that I choose Six and if that means having to withstand the shit my family puts me through, then so be it because the alternative of not having her in my life, of her not being mine?

There’s no universe in which I’m letting that happen.

All I can hope for is that one day she’ll come to choose me, to feel for me a fraction of what I feel for her.

In the end, I know that my father will crucify me if I bail on this trip at the last second, so I do the second-best thing. I pull my phone out of my jacket pocket and call for backup.

Me:Can you go over to your place and check on Six? She wasn’t feeling well when I left her.

Bellamy:Oh no! I’ll head over now. Thanks for letting me know.

Me:Let me know if she needs anything. Whatever it is, I’ll make it happen.

Bellamy::) :)

If I can’t be there, I’ll make sure she has the next best thing. We pull up to the airport and I’m about to put my phone away when it beeps again.

Rogue:Stop texting my girlfriend, asshole.

I roll my eyes and put my phone in my pocket before exiting the car and walking through the double doors of the airport.

***

Fourteen hours later, I text Six and let her know that I arrived in Korea.

Me:Landed in Seoul.

An hour passes.

Me:My hotel has a 360 view of the city.

Me:Next time, I’ll bring you with me so I can fuck you against these windows while the sun sets.

Another hour passes.

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