Total pages in book: 181
Estimated words: 181613 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 908(@200wpm)___ 726(@250wpm)___ 605(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 181613 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 908(@200wpm)___ 726(@250wpm)___ 605(@300wpm)
I close my eyes and hold on tight, listening to his heartbeat for the final time.
A heartbeat I once used to hear so often I forgot what it sounded like.
Euphoria straight into the brain right before death takes over.
But our plunge doesn’t come with a giant crack of the bones, doesn’t split open my skull at the bottom of the rocks.
The cold hits my lungs first, and I gasp and suck in a bucket of water, heaving to get it all out again when I finally come up for air. We’re in the water, sloshing with the waves, right next to the rocks.
I’m … I’m alive.
And my hands are still firmly wrapped around his body.
We’re alive.
He’s right here, in my arms, looking at me like he’s seeing the same ghost that haunted me all this time. And I can’t look away from those dark eyes that swept me away.
Even if I should hate him.
Even if I should get my revenge.
Even if I should let him die just like my family desires.
I don’t want to.
I can’t.
I won’t.
I refuse to give up on Levi Torres.
Because somewhere deep down, that girl who once looked at him the way he now looks at me still loves him.
Levi
She’s right here in my arms, hovering in the same ocean, staring at me with those same ocean eyes, and it feels like I’m dreaming. Like I’ve died and gone to heaven, a place I don’t deserve to be. But if she’s here, I’m right where I want to be.
Suddenly, she punches me in the chest. “Fuck you!” She punches me again and again. “Just fuck you, Levi Torres!” I let her go on because it doesn’t matter anymore. I deserve every ounce of her rage.
I was prepared to end it all for her.
I was supposed to die.
And then she saved me.
“You.” Punch. “Don’t.” Punch. “Get.” Punch. “To.” Punch. “Fucking.” Punch. “Die!”
It doesn’t hurt, no matter how many times she punches me. Her last punch is so weak that she stops trying as the tears begin to roll down her cheeks, and even when she’s crying, she’s still prettier than anything I’ve ever set my sights on. My arms instinctively wrap around her as she slowly lays her head on my chest, right where she hit me.
“I can’t … I couldn’t let you …” she murmurs.
I shush her and hold her for a moment. “I’m sorry.”
Endless waves crash into the rocks, breaking the silence.
When she’s stopped crying, she leans away, still staring at me.
“You jumped me… to save me. Why?” I ask, still in shock. “I thought you hated me.”
“I did. I …” A blush spreads on her cheeks. “But I don’t want to hate you anymore.”
All I can look at are the droplets of water running down her face, across all those gorgeous freckles that I’ve wanted to kiss for so long.
“But I killed you—”
She suddenly plants a finger on my lips, silencing me. But as her finger lingers, her eyes hover all across my face, as if she’s taking in every inch of my skin for the very first time.
“You never saw the way I looked at you,” she mutters. “You called me a firefly with brown hair … I dyed it red so you’d notice me.”
My index finger curls around her red hair as I tuck it behind her ear. Her eyes are like stars in the night sky, cascading down rain from above, and I would happily drown in them.
I wish I’d noticed her sooner. If I could go back in time, I would tell myself to kiss the girl before our time ran out.
“You were always beautiful,” I say, choking up.
Her finger gently slides down my lip, but the simple touch is like a drug to my body that’s been starving for her for so long that it has forgotten what it was like. And when she slides it down my scorpion tattoo, goose bumps scatter far and wide on my skin.
“You ran away from me so many times before…” I say as my hands slowly snake their way up her back, electrifying my senses.
She places her hands on my chest near my shoulders, our eyes locked onto each other like we’ve never looked at each other before, and it strips me of every inch of my resolve.
“I was scared,” she says. “Scared of what would happen. Scared of ruining our friendship. Scared that you didn’t feel the same way about me.”
The heart I thought was long dead beats faster and faster as I press my palm into her back and close the distance between us, our faces mere inches away from each other. She’s beautiful. So fucking beautiful that it takes my breath away. All I’ve ever wanted, all I’ve ever needed, was her.
“Your family wants me dead, my family wants me as far away as possible from you …”