Page 114 of The Freedom in Captivity

“My first message is to say goodbye and explain where I’m headed. That, despite all the fucked-up shit we’d gone through down here, thank you. For not truly harming me more than I deserved, for giving me a part of myself back. For letting me cling to the past, to my lightness in a moment of darkness. For allowing the moon to break from the clouds again.”

My palms grow damp. Fuckingsweaty. Have I ever felt a reaction like this before?

“And the second?” Can I handle another?

Her hand stretches toward my arm, but right before our skin makes contact, she drops it to her side. “That I didn’t only love you in high school,ma lune. I love you now too. Hell, maybe I neverstoppedloving you. What I said that day was all a lie, and I know I’ve explained this before, but I hope you believe me now. The bet with friends never happened. You being a part of it—well, there was no bet for you to be included in. Being with you was because I fell for you then. You made me feel better. You made me realize there’s more in the world than what my father’s life promised. And our time together now reminded me of all of that, so thank you. If I walk out of this basement today, if you’re done with me, justthank youfor reminding me of who I am. And…” Her teeth scrape her bottom lip, making it red. “And you certainly are good enough. I know your father and everyone else in your life instilled this belief in you, but I’ve never believed it, not once. Not for one moment. Youaregood enough and you finally have people in your life who know it too.” Her gaze breaks from me to sweep the area.

She looks to the chains hanging from the ceiling, the staircase, the sleeping bag still down here. The urge to speak grows strong, but I wait for her to be completely finished. To make her decision.

After two minutes of looking away, I tilt her chin up, demanding her attention. But her speech is over, and it’s my time. She’s said so as much—I send her away with this as our final meeting and we each get back to where our lives have taken us. Or I accept her and we figure it the fuck out.

There’s many considerations for each option but only one certainty: the sun and the moon go together and I won’t live another eleven years without her.

Grabbing the back of my neck, I haul her to my chest, tip her face up and bring mine down, giving her my answer.

Rozelyn

The only reason I managed to get everything out as quick as I had was because I’ve spent the past hour rehearsing it while waiting for him to show up. That and I knew, this is it. After today, everything I don’t tell him remains unsaid forever.

But if saying it all wasn’t bad enough, the thick silence following is. He reaches for me and I become very still, worried if I flinch or show signs of movement, he’ll stop. A finger tilts my face up and his dark eyes study me.

Say something,I beg him. Every second that passes creates a tighter and tighter knot in my stomach and at what point will I stop breathing?

The hand beneath my chin shifts, sliding over my skin and it takes real effort to keep my eyes open and not fall into the bliss his touch brings. With his hand on the back of my neck, he hauls my body to his, every inch of me pressing against him, my breath a gasp and then no more as he tilts my head again and smashes his lips to mine.

It’s heated, hungry, and packed with a desperation I’ve never felt in Flynn before. I get the sense that this is his own goodbye, but if this is it for us, I’m pleased it’s at least ending like this. With passion and not hate.

He bends lightly, looping an arm beneath my ass and lifts until I wind my legs around his waist, keeping him tight to me. I think he’s walking, but it could also be my head going light from the oxygen he’s robbing my lungs of.

When a sharp brick hits my back, I realize we’re at the wall. He releases me on the faith my legs will maintain the hold, and grips both my wrists, hauling them above our heads so high, my back arches and the kiss breaks. His fingers push into my palms, pressing right over my scar.

For the first time since I’ve known him, a fresh fear runs through his gaze. It’s about to open his heart wide even before he takes his first breath.

“I’m not good at words, Rozelyn, and you know that. I never have been. I was recently told the line between love and hate is thin, and you’re the living, breathing proof of that fact.Mon soleil, I hated you because it was the single emotion I clung to, to replace the love I had for you. I didn’t feel it, even when you first walked away from me. Deep down, I fuckin’ knew what you told me wasn’t true. I shut myself off from the world again because it was the easiest thing to do, to avoid from being ripped open like you had done to me the first time. Finding you down here was both a dream and a nightmare. A nightmare because I knew I’d be facing what I’ve spent years running from—my feelings for you.”

His thumb strokes over my pulse on my wrist, which has definitely sped up during his speech. He talks of old hate, not fresh ones. And hope makes breathing both easier and a challenge.

“But when I returned to my room earlier and you were gone, I had one focus: finding you. I couldn’t let you leave again.” His hold on my wrists get tighter, his eyes narrowing, slightly crazed. “Do you hear me, Rozelyn? It was never about a clean break. About saying goodbye so you can go. Your absence this morning made me realize what I’ve always known, and the absolute fuckin’ fact of it being, I love you,mon soleil, and you willnotleave me again.” His lips curl in the corners, his gaze flicking to the side, indicating the room we’re in. “Even if I have to chain you up again and make you my captive.”

Joy. Disbelief. Pleasure. It all blends in my heart, making my mind a blank mess to sort through the various emotions and thoughts that hit me all at once.

Logically, he and I make little sense. He’s the enforcer to the family who despises mine. Who, at the very least, has too much of a negative history to deal with me being around, and I won’t allow him to leave the Corsettis for me. Not the people who took him in when I abandoned him, who made him into the man he is today.

But I’m whole again. With my single nod, he kisses me again, his tongue skirting my lips until I part for him. He makes me complete, and I can’t go another eleven years without this. I have my sister to track down, but I also, for once, need to think about me. Aboutusand what today can mean.

Like he was thinking the same, he drops his forehead to mine, his heavy breaths mingling with mine. “I have no idea how this will work, Rozelyn, but I’ll fight anyone who tries to take you from me.”

“We’ll figure it out,” I tell him, since I have no answers for this conundrum either. With his mouth on me, my brain has stopped functioning entirely. I jerk against his tight hold, making a point with my next words, “Fuck me, Flynn. Fuck me like you wanted to the moment you found me down here.”

His pupils dilate and he drops my wrists, doing the exact opposite of what I want, but as quick as I’m about to complain, I shut up as he grabs my ass again and walks us away from the wall.

His movements are quick and methodical when he lowers me to my feet and grabs my wrists again. It’s then I finally glance around and notice where I am. The chains he once had me stuck in.

This time, there’s no trepidation. Only a deep-seated craving as he binds my wrists with the cuffs. First my right, and then my left. Flynn backs away, his head tipping as he studies my form with a calculating grin.

“Do you remember,” he speaks, turning around and heading toward the table in the corner, “when I visited in the middle of the night?”

“When you looked like you lost your mind? Vividly.”

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