Return to the Darkness - Ripley Proserpina Page 0,30

had to respond. I wrapped my arms around him, broke off our kiss and held him tight. “It’s okay.”

He dipped his forehead to touch my shoulder. “No. It’s not. Nothing is okay. Except that you’re here. It was a mistake, wasn’t it?” He lifted his head. “We buried you, but I knew it wasn’t you. You were too important to die. What happened? Were you blown away in the blast? Did you lose your memory? You remember now though, right? Everything will be okay. I promise.” His blue-eyed gaze was so earnest. So serious.

I skimmed my hands up his back and then through his hair. Eyes closing, he let out a huge sigh.

“In the reality I live in, I didn’t die. I was in the house with all of you when the house collapsed. I stopped Erdirg. And then I left.” I’d explained this to both Aaron and Oliver. I would have to do it with Thorn, too. “After ten years, the four of you found me. We’ve all been together, yes like that, ever since. Then Mr. Chee decided he wanted to do better by his kids. He altered the past. And I’m here. I need your help. All of you. To get back. To us.”

His mouth fell open. “No.”

I raised my eyebrows. “No?”

“I don’t want you to go back. Stay here. With me.”

Well, this was different. “I can’t do that. You have a whole life there that’s different than this one. I think you deserve to have that life. I think we all do. You’re an archeologist.”

His eyes widened. “That was sort of a secret dream.”

“One you lived.” He smelled like my Colton. It was nice to see some things hadn’t changed.

He smoothed my hair off my forehead. “Stay here and fix things here. I mean… I don’t particularly like Aaron and Oliver. Or Thorn for that matter. But I’ll work on that. You can help them fix their lives. Probably too late for the archeologist. But we can watch a lot of Indiana Jones.”

I snorted, not able to help myself. I had thought about that when I’d heard what he did for a living. “I’m not meant to be here. In this world, I died. Can you help me get back to where I didn’t?”

He visibly swallowed. “Did I get to have your virginity? In that other world? Did that happen?”

Rolling my eyes, I shoved at his chest. “Have my virginity? My virginity is not a thing anyone got to have or not have. Talk about misogyny. You’d know better than that in my world. Have my virginity? Are you for real?”

He pressed his forehead to mine. “And there’s that mouth I fell in love with.” It was hard to be mad at Colton when he said things like that. Even if he wouldn’t dare have said them in our other existence. “So did I?”

I shook my head. “No”

“Damn it. Which one of them got it?”

I let go of him. “None of you, actually. But you get a lot of me now, Colton. In the other world.”

“That other me is such a lucky bastard.” He sighed. “Yes, I’ll help you, Lacey. Although, I don’t know exactly what I can do. I’m not an archeologist. I run this monster of a company. And make my secretary cry, apparently.”

I squeezed his arms. “Do better than that.”

“Where do we go? What do we do?” His blue eyes were so sad. I never wanted to see him like this again. Not with this sadness. Not my Colton.

I kissed him. Because I had to. Wrapping my arms around his neck, I swore as the pleasure of his kiss moved through me that I would never forget that Colton had this side of him, this place where he could go so dark that he wasn’t himself anymore. I’d do everything in my life to make sure that he never felt this way again.

Pulling away from me, he sighed. “I fucking hate that I don’t get to keep you. What happens to me? Do I just disappear?” He glanced around the office. “I don’t even know if I care. This isn’t a life. It’s a placeholder.”

He was ripping out my heart. “You don’t disappear.” I cupped his face. “You’re still you. This version of you isn’t a worse version. Or a better version. It’s just different. It’s like…” God. This wasn’t my forte. They’d always been the ones who were able to explain the metaphysical in a way that made sense. I hoped I