Page 156 of The Sins of Noelle

She’s like a damn puppy waiting for her bone. It doesn’t help that she’s looking at me like a fucking wounded puppy when she’s the one who pulled the trigger on that gun.

“Can we talk?” She asks as she comes to my side, dropping to her knees and fitting her body to my legs like before.

She’s looking at me from beneath her lashes, her expression reeking of false innocence.

“Save all you want to say for when we reach the hacienda. There’s about an hour left until then and I’d like to have some peace first.”

“I don’t want you to be even more mad at me,” she whispers. “Let me tell you why I did it.”

“Why?” I ask point blankly.

She wets her lips, contemplating her words for a moment.

“I swear to you I will be truthful. I just… The person I was at the hacienda… It wasn’t nice, Raf. And I’d never want you to see that side of me. I can tell you everything, but hearing about it and seeing it are two different things. If you saw me…” she swallows hard. “It would mar your perception of me forever.”

“And you don’t think it’s already marred?” I raise a brow at her.

She shakes her head.

“You don’t understand. The me back then…there was nothing I wouldn’t have done to survive. Nothing I wouldn’t have done…for you,” she gives me a sad smile. “Before you, I had nothing to lose. But after you… I did horrible, horrible things, Raf. I don’t regret them, because they allowed me to be here now, with you. But that doesn’t mean I want you to see me—to see who they calledla diabla.”

“Go back to your seat, Noelle,” I add on a weary voice. “We’ll discuss this later.”

“But Raf…” she protests.

When I see she’s not budging, I unbuckle my own seatbelt and stand up, swooping her in my arms and taking her back to her own seat.

“One hour, Noelle. Let me have a goddamn hour of peace, ok?”

Just as I place her on her seat, she grasps onto the material of my shirt, pulling me closer to her.

“You still love me. I know you do. You can’t just turn off your feelings and Itrustyour love,” she says in a panicked voice.

“So?” I inquired in a bored tone.

“If you love me…please give me the chance to prove myself to you,” she pleads, her eyes glossy.

“We’ll see.”

“Please, Raf,” she repeats, leaning into me until her breath is on my lips. She closes her eyes, her hands tightening in the material of my shirt as she stops short of kissing me. She merely stays like that, close but not too close.

Slowly, her eyes open, and the sight of those beautiful irises cuts me to the core.

I open my mouth to say something, yet I don’t get to utter one word as a loud noise permeates the air before the plane suddenly dips.

For one moment suspended in time, we stare at each other, both wide-eyed, both knowing what’s coming. And in that moment, there’s no more animosity, or anger. There’s only a sense of belonging—of being with the right person even if it’s at the wrong time.

I reach for her, tugging her to me as I hold on to the only thing I've loved more than my own life.

The sudden loss in altitude makes us lose our equilibrium, our bodies colliding with each other and the blunt furniture.

There’s only pain and a marked feeling of loss.

The next moment, we’re falling.

18Rafaelo

Igroan out loud as I shift to my side, pain flaring from my ribs. My head throbs, my vision swimming as my consciousness slowly returns to me, as does the realization of what happened.

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