Second (Betrothed 6)

“And they fell in love right then?”

“No. Hades said she was too young for him. But Sofia didn’t like that answer, so she grabbed him and kissed him so hard, he never forgot about her.”

She smiled.

“And four years later, their paths crossed again…and that’s where it all started.”

“He loves her so much. I can tell by the way he looks at her.”

I nodded. “Yeah…they’re soul mates.”

Her eyes softened when she looked at me. “You believe in that stuff?”

“More than you’ll ever know.” I turned my gaze back to the wall as I remembered the last few years, everything Hades did to keep Sofia as his wife. There was nothing he wouldn’t have done for her.

“You believe there’s one special person out there for everyone?”

“No.”

She raised an eyebrow.

“I think some people are soul mates. That’s all.”

“Any other soul mates you know?”

I shook my head. “He’s the only one.”

“Why do you think they are meant for each other?”

I would never tell her the story. She would think I was crazy. “I just do.”

“Like how you just knew the baby would alright?”

“Just like that, actually.”

She stared at me for a while before she looked out at the city. “Why do I feel like there’s something you aren’t telling me?”

How did she know me so well? We were only together for a short time, but she read me in a special way. “Because there is.”

She pivoted her body to me this time, looking at me head on.

“But you wouldn’t believe me if I told you.”

“Try me.”

I stared at her pretty face and almost considered it. “Maybe someday.”

Her pretty eyes continued to shift back and forth and look into mine, her body covered in the enormous jacket. It was the same way she looked in all my clothes, as if she were wearing a blanket. Her curves were covered and her slender neck was nearly invisible, but she still looked so damn beautiful.

Holy fuck.

I kept my hands in my pockets as I stared at her, noticing the way her big diamonds reflected any little flicker of light. She was a woman who wasn’t just sexy in a traditional way, with those long legs and that tight stomach. She had a special glow to her that was unmatched by anyone else. Her beauty was radiant, pure. As I stared at her in that moment, I could honestly say she was the most beautiful woman I’d ever seen.

And I’d let her go.

Regret started to wash over me like waves upon stepping into a cold ocean. She was with a man who didn’t deserve her. She was a diamond that had been handed over to a jeweler to be carved into pieces when she deserved to be one magnificent rock.

She held my gaze, her thoughts invisible to me.

I’d give anything to know what she was thinking, to feel her emotions in real time. Did she come out here because that woman gave me her number? Or did she come out here because Liam went into the details of his last victory?

I didn’t ask because the answer wouldn’t make me feel better. “You look beautiful tonight.”

She dropped her gaze for just a moment, the compliment enough to make her cheeks blush with a rosy color that was unmistakable. The cold had pulled her blood away from her extremities to conserve heat, so that reaction was a spike in temperature.

She was the only woman who valued my compliments, who blushed at the simplest words. The only woman who believed in my positive qualities and couldn’t see my flaws. She was the only woman who stared at me like this…as if I was the only man she would ever love.

Why did I let her go?

I stepped closer to her, my face coming into close proximity with hers. It was like at the hospital, when I lost my mind as I tried to comfort her. My hand moved on top of hers on the rail, feeling how cold it was in the nighttime air. My palm smothered her hand and brought it back to life with warmth.

My free hand moved into that curtain of hair, and I tilted her face to meet mine. I stared at her for a long time, my eyes shifting back and forth to see hers doing the same. My thumb brushed over her cheek and touched the corner of her lip. I remembered every kiss, every sweet whisper in the middle of the night, and I suddenly felt empty…like I’d just lost all those things.

My hand cupped the back of her head, and I moved in, transfixed by her beauty, intoxicated by the way she stared at me, moved by the memories of our past. I didn’t think about Liam or anyone else. All I thought about was her, the woman I hadn’t stopped thinking about since the moment she stepped into my office.