Chapter 216 Like a bucket of water

Chapter 216 Like a bucket of water
He turned his dark, tear-stained eyes back to mine.
“Just because your parents are separating now doesn't mean their love was a lie,” I said softly, smoothing back his messy dark hair. “It doesn't mean they didn't love each other when they built your family, and it definitely doesn't mean they don't love you. People grow apart, Tobias. Relationships get complicated and heavy, but the years they spent raising you, loving you, and protecting you—especially after your accident—were real. Their pain right now doesn't erase the good years you had with them,” I whispered, my thumbs gently wiping away the dampness on his cheeks.

Tobias listened, his chest still heaving with unsteady hitches as he held onto my hands like I was his only anchor in a storm. But the heavy, suffocating cloud of sadness hanging over him didn't lift.

He stared down at our intertwined fingers, shaking his head slowly, a bitter, broken laugh escaping his lips.
“I just don’t get it, Lisa,” he choked out, his voice cracking down the middle. “I don’t get how two people who swore they were in love—who built a whole life together—can just wake up one day and decide to throw it all away. How do you just stop? How do you look at someone you promised forever to and walk away?”

He lifted his head, his dark grey eyes locking onto mine with an intensity so raw, so terrifyingly deep, that it robbed the air right out of my lungs.
“I look at them, and it scares the hell out of me,” he whispered, his grip on my hands tightening until it almost hurt. “Because I know how I feel about you. I couldn’t do it, Lisa. I would literally tear my own heart out of my chest before I ever let go of you. I could never separate from you. Never.”

A wave of intense, overwhelming emotion crashed over me, stinging the back of my throat. Without a word, I shifted forward, pulling his head straight against my chest and wrapping my arms around his broad shoulders. I held him as tightly as I could, burying my face in his hair as quiet, heavy sobs shook his frame once more. 

I just held him, letting my heartbeat steady his, refusing to let him feel alone in the dark.

We stayed like that for a long time until his breathing finally began to slow.

Slowly, Tobias pulled back just enough to look up at me. The tears had stopped, but his eyes were filled with a low, desperate heat.

“I need you, Lisa,” he breathed softly, his voice dropping into a low, gravelly rasp.

“I’m right here,” I reassured him instantly, squeezing his hands. “I’m not going anywhere, Tobias.”

Tobias shook his head, a small, pained frown tugging at his lips. “No... not just like this.”
He reached out, his large, warm hands sliding up my arms, pulling me up onto the couch until I was sitting directly in his lap, my legs wrapped around his waist.
“I need to feel you against me, Lisa,” he whispered, his dark eyes locking onto mine with an overwhelming, possessive heat that sent a jolt of electricity straight down my spine. “I need to get lost in your scent, in the taste of you. I need to forget that my parents' love didn’t last forever... and I need to remember that my love for you will.”

My heart did a violent, soaring flip inside my chest. The sheer weight of his devotion made my head spin, a sweet, terrifying heat pooling in the pit of my stomach. 

He was hurting so deeply, reaching out to me in the only way he knew how to find comfort, to anchor himself in something real.

“Please, little witch,” he added quietly, leaning his face down toward mine.

The words hit me like a bucket of ice water.