Chapter 192 Dance with me again
Chapter 192 Dance with me again
Elara's POV,
He says nothing, and I walk straight toward him until I have to tilt my head back just to look into his eyes.
I grab both of his arms, and force him to look at me.
“Guardami, Lucien.”
Look at me.
“What next?!”
Nothing.
He just stares.
“I don’t think you understand.” I sneer, but the tears keep falling. “I only just let myself love you.” I point at his chest. “I only just started believing forever could happen to me.”
I search his face desperately.
“And now... this?”
Everything inside me finally gives out.
“I can’t do this, Lucien.” The words come out between sobs. “I can’t do this anymore.”
My fingers tighten around his sleeves.
“I'm scared. So scared. Please...” Every ounce of pride I’d spent years building crumbles. “Don’t leave me. Please. Take me with you. Don’t leave me here.”
My forehead hit his chest.
“I can’t survive it.”
He catches me before I even realize I am falling, and his arms wrap around me so tightly they almost hurt.
“I’m so fucking sorry.”
His lips touch my forehead. My temple. My cheeks. He kisses every place the tears had reached.
“I'm sorry. So fucking sorry. I shouldn’t have called you weak. I shouldn’t have lied. I love you.” His own voice breaks. “I love you so fucking much I can’t bear it.”
Then he kisses me.
Not softly or even desperately.
Something much worse.
He kisses me like a starving man finding water after wandering a desert, as every second left between us has already been counted down and he’s trying to steal just one more. He kisses me until the room disappears, until the shouting fades, and until there’s nothing left in the universe except two broken people trying to convince themselves that love could somehow outrun fate.
Only the taste of every promise we’d ever made.
That was when I finally understood why storms are named after people. They arrive beautiful, then they destroy everything.
Lucien Kórvac would ruin me in the most beautiful way imaginable. And God help me… I knew I’d let him.
When he finally rested his forehead against mine, still breathing as though he’d run for miles, he whispered,
“You’ll stay by my side.” His thumb brushed another tear from my cheek. “Because I want what's best for you.”
A tired smile crossed his face.
“Do you trust me?”
Normally, I would’ve smiled or rolled my eyes. Normally, I’d have answered with our little joke.
Only half the time.
Instead...
I looked into the blue eyes I loved more than my own life and somehow made my home.
“...Yes.”
He pulled me back into his arms immediately, and held me so tightly that I wondered if he was afraid I’d disappear.
And for reasons I couldn’t explain, something deep inside my chest quietly sank.
Like a warning.
Like somewhere beyond all this love...
The universe had already decided how our story would end, and Fate had already made up its mind.
~~
It was the night before the operation.
Lucien had asked me to meet him outside because, according to his message, he had something important to tell me. Instead, the moment I stepped onto the field and saw him standing there alone, every coherent thought fled my head.
My heart had not recovered from earlier when I’d finally confessed.
Not intentionally or beautifully. And certainly not the way I’d imagined it for days.
The words had simply escaped me in the middle of tears and shouting.
The man I love.
Yet somehow...
It didn’t feel finished. It felt like there were still a thousand things trapped inside my chest, all trying to escape at once.
Lucien stood beneath the endless sky with both hands tucked into his pockets, staring into the darkness as though it might answer questions neither of us knew how to ask.
“...Dance with me.”
The words left my mouth before I could stop them. Immediately I wanted to crawl into a hole and disappear. Lucien looked over his shoulder, and a slow smile spread across his face.
“The lady is asking me?”
I nodded once, suddenly fascinated by the grass beneath my shoes.
“We didn’t get to dance during our engagement.” I swallowed. “...Or our wedding.”
He raised an eyebrow.
“Your fault, wasn’t it?”
Despite everything, I smiled.
“I know.”
He walked toward me until barely a breath remained between us. For a long moment neither of us spoke.
He simply looked at me, then his eyes softened in that quiet way they always did whenever we were alone, and before I realized what he was doing, he lifted my hand and pressed a kiss against the inside of my wrist.
“So romantic,” I whispered.
“I’ve had a lot of practice.”
I laughed quietly, and he held my hand.
“Come.”
He led me farther into the open field where the grass brushed against my ankles. My white dress drifted with the breeze, and although there wasn’t a moon above us, the stars seemed determined to make up for it.
We stopped.
“Remember what I told you the first time I bathed you?”
“The one in Slovenia?”
He nodded. Then, so quietly it almost disappeared into the wind, he murmured,
“Ti si najlepša zvezda na mojem nebu.” He smiled. “Do you want to know what it means?”
I searched his face, and there was something there tonight. Something unbearably sad.
So I took his other hand in mine.
“No.” He blinked. “I want you to tell me when we get back.”
His smile faltered.
“Elara…”
“I just want to dance with you.”
He looked around.
“There’s no music. Unless…”
I nodded.
“Yes.”
His fingers brushed gently over my ears, and the world fell silent for one heartbeat.
Then he removed his hands, and music drifted through the night. Soft, and elegant. The same melody from our first night.
I closed my eyes.
When I opened them again, fireflies floated through the darkness, the stars burned brighter than before, and Lucien...
His eyes weren’t Levi’s.
They were Lucien’s entirely and wonderfully.
Painfully.
He rested one hand against my waist so gently it felt as though he was convincing himself I was really there, and I placed my hand on his shoulder.
Then without another word, we began to move. It felt strangely familiar. As though somewhere, in another lifetime, we’d already learned this dance.
“I have something to say,” he whispered.
“What is it?”