Page 76 of The Masks and the Dancer (Their Obsession 2)

“Because…” She trembles, her lips wobbling as she grasps for words. “B—because right now my pain is the only way to draw out the g—good in you.”

Her words hit me like a juggernaut and my knees buckle at the truth.

I’m so messed up. I’m so, so fucked-up.

I’m beyond help, beyond redemption.

“I don’t want your pain…” I mutter, gutted by her words, by the truth, even though she’s right.

I saved her from the fire only when the sounds of her screams tore at me. I kissed her gently, tenderly, called her Christy in the dungeon only once she’d bled for me. I’ve stopped now, only because her cry of pain, her tears, had pulled me out of my trance.

“Fuck.Fuck!” I lament, forcing my legs to straighten and place the knife into her hand as I wrap my fingers around hers and press the blade against my throat. “Do it!”

“No,” she shakes her head, trying to pull her hand back.

I press the blade harder against my throat, crushing her fingers in mine. “Do it. I don’t fucking deserve to live.”

“Leon, enough!” Jakub commands.

“Fuck you,brother,” I snarl, twisting my head to look at him. “Don’t you fucking get it? I’m fighting to be a better man. I don’t want to hurt her anymore. I. Don’t. Want. To.”

“Then d—don’t,” Christy whispers, her breath feathering over my heated skin. With her free hand she twines her shaking fingers in my hair, forcing me to look back at her. “Don’t hurt me anymore.”

“I don’t understand,” I whisper.

“Make the pain go away.”

“How? How canIdo that?”

“You’ve done it before.”

“What?” My hand jerks and I feel the sharp sting as the blade slices my skin, opening up the wound Konrad gave me only days before.

“Kissme, Leon.”

“Kiss you?”

“Show Jakub the side of you he truly fears,” she continues, hiccuping against my lips. “Show him that thereismore to you. Helpus.”

“Us?” I press my forehead against hers, my stomach bottoming out and my chest squeezing tightly at her generosity, her spirit, her fucking heart. “You would do that, aftereverything?”

“Yes.”

Now it’s my turn to be confused. “Why?”

She sighs, and with it I feel a loosening, a release of something. Is it acceptance? I’m not able to unravel that right now, too caught up in the whirlwind of my own feelings. “Because we were always supposed to get to this point. God knows I’ve fought hard against it,” she says quietly, her lips edging along my cheek as she presses her mouth against my ear. “Earlier you asked me if I was a seer. I lied when I said I wasn’t. Iammy mother’s daughter. I knew you were coming before you even found me.”

My hand drops from hers as I drag in a sharp breath. She removes the knife from my neck, dropping it to the floor. She could have killed me. She didn’t.

“You knew about us and you didn’t run?”

“At the last minute I wanted to, but by that time it was already too late.”

“I’m sorry.”

She nods. “You have to promise me something, Leon.”

“Anything. Fuck,anything,” I mutter against her mouth.

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