Page 76 of The Freedom in Captivity

And then her next words make it worse. They don’t ease the storm brewing inside me. The one whipping at my organs.

“I’m sorry for not looking for you, Flynn. I debated it often. So many times, I’ve wondered if you remained in the city or moved away. I feared what would happen if Dad learned I found you. Leaving you was for your safety and letting you remain in my past was too. Plus…” She trails off, biting her lip.

My heart pounds faster, my fingers digging into her hips, demanding she continue. “Plus what?”

“It was a high school fling. A few months of fun. A temporary connection which broke so easily, with only one goodbye.”

Temporary.Shewas never temporary for me, even when I fucking wanted her to be.

Even with her right against my body, I step into her, forcing her to walk backwards. One, two, three steps she takes, and I match each one. We continue our dance until her back hits the wall closest to us, a slight gasp escaping her throat as she scans the area, noting how far we’ve gotten from the room’s centre.

I release her hips to grab her wrists, lifting them overhead, arching her back into my chest. My mouth presses to hers, swallowing those breathy gasps, her gentle moans.

We absolutely shouldn’t be doing this when I have a job and her future is unknown. It’s fucked up, but this moment in time ismine.

I kiss her until she’s panting, until I break away and her heavy pants fill the barely-there space between us, warming my face. When her eyes fill with lust and her lips are swollen with desire.

“Did that feel like we were a moment in time,mon soleil?”

“No,” she answers mutely. “I never believed you were, Flynn, but I wished you could be, so it’d be easier. I hoped, for you, I was. For years, I convinced myself the emotions were one-sided and you’d long moved on, meanwhile I was clinging to the only brightness I’d known.”

Both of us stuck in our own, private hells. Both of us letting go of a teenage relationship, convincing ourselves it was only that. Both of us clinging to that very relationship to fuel us.

Before releasing her wrists, I press my thumb against her right palm, right over the white scar. Then I reach for my shirt draping her form and pull it up and over her head, dropping it at our feet.

Her nipples strain against the change in temperature, and my mouth waters, the desire to lap them growing. I cup her breasts, one in each hand, and pinch her tight nubs.

“The moment I saw you in the basement, did anything imply we were ever temporary?”

“You hate me. You’ve said so many times.”

“I hate what life did to you, to us. I hate you for what you said to me back then. I hated you because I thought Ihadto, to be loyal to the only people who’ve given me a family worth fighting for. I believed I was a game to you, but I didn’t understand everything.” I release her breasts to grip her face again, one hand at the back of her neck, the other beneath her chin, tipping her face to mine so she can feel my next words. “How can I hate someone who’s been fighting alone this entire time and who’s still come out on top, fuckin’ stronger than ever?”

“I’m sorry,” she whispers, though I don’t know what for. I’ve never asked for an apology. I don’t believe in regrets because every action a person chooses to make is made for a purpose. Whether good or bad, it was made, and there’s only moving forward from it.

“Don’t be. You’re not the one who needs to apologize.” I brush my lips over hers, feeling the moment her breath becomes rattled, her breathing fragmented. “If I hated you, I wouldn’t have fucked you. If I hated you, I would have been able to hurt you—truly. Do you know how many times I’d gone down there with the intention to but couldn’t bring myself to actually harm you?”

She doesn’t respond with words, but rather, with an action. She lifts her hand and rests it right over my heart, over my Corsetti tattoo, put there alongside my oaths.

“I’ve been a shadow, Flynn. Forced to live in the backdrop of my father’s plan. You were the only one to ever rid me of the pain. You made breathing easier. You gave melife. It took me a long time to stop thinking about you.”

“Me too,” I admit, my tone rough. “Mon soleil, you did something to me.” I lift my hand, resting it over hers. “You made me feel wanted for fuckin’ once.”

“And you made me feel appreciated.”

Both of us fucked-up in our own ways. Designed by our own traumas. Controlled by the shadows.

Rozelyn

In the basement, we were in our own little world. It was a game neither of us were winning or losing. The torture, the pain, the provoking—it was life. For Flynn, he was on a high executing it while I revelled in receiving it. The world outside that room paused.

Telling the Corsettis about Dad, not only ends my captivity, the pain he’s caused, the hell he’s dragged my life through, but alsothis.Flynn and me.

The future is unknown. I’m not safe until Nico allows me to walk out the front doors. Even then, I have no idea where to go from here. Hunting down Yasmine and finding us safety where we can live happily will be my next goal. Flynn will return to his job, and the life he’s constructed here.

Perhaps that’s why I haven’t pushed him away. Once Flynn walks out that bedroom door, I have no idea when, or if, I’ll ever see him again. This could be it and I need a better goodbye than the first, disastrous one. This time, with all our cards laid out and not a mounting pile of lies between us.

With his eyes pinning mine, I pull my hand from beneath his, away from his heart, and finger the bottom of his shirt before tugging it up his chest. He helps, tossing it toward mine.

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