thumb across the apple of my cheek. His beautiful eyes scanned my face, my hair, even down to my neck as if needing to take in every inch of me. Gods, but just with that look alone he made me feel so treasured.
“Please, give me time… this…this is all too much to take in,” I whispered, finally braving to look up at him, meeting his eyes as his gaze came back to mine. He released a heavy sigh before placing his forehead to mine once more, a rumbled sound of frustration coming from him before he lifted his head so he could kiss me there.
“Alright Amelia, I will give you this time…”
“Thank y…”
“But it is time that will be spent by my side,” he said cutting me off and giving me little choice in the matter. I looked away from him, knowing that right now I didn’t have it me to argue. No, I just couldn’t think much more past the realisation that he was here with me now. So, I nodded without looking at him, simply waiting for him to step away and finally give me that space I felt desperate for. It was as though I couldn’t breathe. As if I had forgotten the process or something.
But then he grasped my chin and turned my face back to his, giving me little option than to do as he wanted. However, despite his dominant grip, his eyes softened in a way I used to love.
“Don’t shut me out,” he whispered gently and this time I couldn’t help but close my eyes, needing to rid myself of the sight of what was happening. Then finally I could breathe again when I felt him stepping away, cursing under his breath in a language I didn’t know. That was when I finally opened my eyes and turned my back on him. Finding myself once more holding onto the table top and grasping at the papers there, as if the feel of the pages beneath my fingers would help take me back to what had once been my reality. The one I had built up without Lucius.
Not here. Not back here in this dream world that I had been stumbling blindly through the whole time Lucius had pretended to want me. Back to the place he seemed to want to force me back to. Which made me hiss,
“Why?”
“You know why, you are just too blinded by what you think you saw to see the truth behind the veil of pain,” he told me making a breath get stuck in my throat on a gasp.
“I won’t go back there…I won’t go back to Afterlife. You can’t make me,” I told him, turning back around to tell him the last part of this vow, which was when he surprised me.
“I have no intention of trying to force you to,” he told me with a fold of his arms across that wide chest of his. Gods be damned, but why did he have to look even better than I remembered. In fact, my memories hadn’t done his image justice and even then, he had been the one to feature in every one of my fantasies. Also, I had never seen him dressed in anything other than a suit or jeans and a t shirt. But right now, he was dressed for summer and I hated to say it, but Gods, he looked hot and that had nothing to do with the temperature.
He wore a worn denim shirt open and rolled at the sleeves with a white t-shirt underneath. He had dark grey cargo shorts that reached his knees and had multiple pockets, that looked to have a pair of aviator sunglasses hooked in one. I knew that most likely a phone and wallet would be in the others. A pair of black sandals that looked like the kind wore for hiking and a black glove that looked like strapping you would have on for a boxing match, completed the look. Who knew that Lucius had a glove for every season, I thought with a concealed snigger.
But it made me wonder what he thought when seeing me now after all this time. My denim shorts, striped red and white vest top and white sneakers weren’t exactly anything to write home about.
Besides, my mind was kind of stuck on the part when he said that he had no intention of forcing me to go back to Afterlife.
What the Hell?
I turned back to the table and started to pile