Page 102 of Savage Crown

She loves me.

She has always loved me.

But she’s lied to me.

The words sit like a dagger lodged between my ribs, a wound too deep to pull free, too painful to ignore.

I should have seen it.

The way she never truly feared me, even when she should have.

Even when I wanted her to.

And now—now that the words have left her lips, I cannot put them back.

I should say something.

I should tell her that love is a useless, wretched thing, a chain that binds and weakens, an illusion that fools even the strongest.

I should laugh in her face and remind her who I am.

What I am.

I am not a man meant for love.

Yet I have never wanted anything more than I want her.

She lays beside me, her body still tangled with mine, her breath warm against my skin.

She watches me, waiting.

Not for an answer.

But for a reaction.

She knows what this means.

She knows what she has just done to me.

I force myself to sit up, to put space between us before I lose myself completely.

If I stay here—if I let her pull me further into this madness?—

I won’t come back from it.

Her voice is soft, careful.

"Say something."

I inhale sharply.

I don’t want to say anything.

Because the wrong words will destroy this.

And the right words will destroy me.

I glance at her, my fingers curling into the sheets.

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