Chapter 75
Camila POV
“Do you even love me, Ethan? Was all I could ask as I watched his whole body tense at the question.
His lips parted slightly, his breath coming out uneven.
For a second, I thought he wouldn’t answer.
Then his frown deepened, his brows pulling together like I had asked him something absolutely absurd. “Really, Camila?” He gritted out. “Can’t you see how much I burn for you?”
Then, before I could react, before I could even process the intensity in his eyes, ” мory yмeреть зa тeбя бeз секунды раздумий! Ты вся моя жизнь, Камила. Я не могу жить без тебя!”
I didn’t understand a word he said.
But I felt them.
Felt them in the way his voice cracked, in the way his hands clenched into fists at his sides, in the way his entire body trembled as if he was fighting something inside himself.
“Ethan…” I called out.
“I don’t even know you.”
His expression twisted.
Then, suddenly, his hands shot forward, gripping my face–not hard, not rough, just enough to keep me still, to make me look at him, to make me feel every single word that came out of his mouth. “Then ask,” he rasped.
His thumbs brushed against my cheeks, his touch burning, intoxicating, consuming.
“Ask me anything, Camila.”
“What do you want to know? How every single day without you is absolute torture? How I wake up every goddamn morning craving the sound of your voice? How every second I spend away from you feels like I’m suffocating?”
His fingers tightened slightly, his body pressing closer, trapping me against the wall, his breath warm against my lips.
“Do you want to know how I can’t fucking sleep because the thought of you haunts me? How I replay every damn moment we’ve ever had over and over again just to feel close to you?”
His forehead pressed against mine, his voice barely a whisper now, rough and broken. “I’m not asking you to accept me, Camila.”
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I shuddered.
Just let me stay close.”
His fingers trembled against my skin.
“Just stop pushing me away.”
Then, almost desperately, his voice cracking-
“It hurts. Goddammit, it fucking hurts!”
And that was when I saw
them.
The tears.
Trailing down his face, catching the light of the room, silently slipping past his lashes like he hadn’t even realized they were there.
And it made my chest ache.
I wanted to reach for him.
I wanted to wipe them away.
I wanted to-
“FUCK!” He cursed, his hands jerking away from me as if he had just burned himself.
His shoulders heaved with the force of his breathing, his jaw clenched tightly.
Then, without another word, he turned away./
I stood there.
Frozen.
Shaken.
And as his back faced me, his body still trembling from everything he had just said, I slowly slid down the
wall.
My legs felt weak.
My hands trembling.
I couldn’t really her making it back to my room that night.
Couldn’t remember when exactly I had collapsed into bed, still dazed, shaken, lost in the echo of Ethan’s words.
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Chapter 75
All I remembered was staring up at the celling, my heart still pounding, my body still burning with the ghost
of his touch.
And then, somewhere in between the tangled mess of thoughts, exhaustion must have pulled me under because the next thing I knew-
I was dreaming.
It was a dream of my mother walking toward a altar in her wedding dress, the lace was delicate, white as fresh snow, glowing under the soft golden light of the temple.
She looked beautiful.
And then-
The dream shattered.
I woke up with a sharp inhale, my chest rising and falling rapidly as I blinked up at the faint glow of the morning light filtering through my curtains.
I didn’t even need to check the time to know it was early.
Earlier than usual.
A rare thing for me.
I swallowed, pressing the heels of my palms into my eyes, trying to shake off the lingering haze of the dream,
of last night, of everything.
I let my arms fall back onto the mattress, my gaze shifting toward the window, my throat dry.
My mother was going to get married to Greg and then Ethan would become my stepbrother.
I exhaled slowly.
So whatever happened yesterday–whatever that was-
I had to forget about it.
1 had to.
I had to move on like it never happened, like it never shook me, like it never made my chest tighten in ways I didn’t understand.
I had to-
I paused.
A sharp, twisting ache in my chest made me stop mid–thought.
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Damn it.
I bit my lip, shaking off the feeling, and forced myself to sit up. My head pounded slightly, my body sluggish, like I had barely slept at all. Which, honestly, I probably hadn’t.
Groaning, I stretched my arms over my head, my muscles stiff from the way I had slept.
“Get over it, I mumbled, my legs heavy as I dragged myself toward the door, determined to go downstairs and get on with my day-
Then I froze.
Ethan.
He was probably still there.
A wave of hesitation slammed into me, making me shift on my feet.
Did I really want to face him right now?
I blew out a breath and shook my head.
I was overthinking-
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