The Grand Pact (The Grand Men #1)(117)

32





Lucy





The wind whips through my hair as my feet hit the sandy path and carry me towards the horizon.

My face is wet with tears, and no matter how hard I try, I can’t stop.

I’m angry at myself. I don’t want to live my life holding on for dear life anymore, too afraid of what could happen when it’s not reality.

Look where it’s got me.

I want to prove them all wrong.

I want to prove him wrong.

“You plan to jump, princess? I can’t see it.”

Without a second thought, I run for the edge of the cliff, my heart hammering in my chest as I leap forward. I instantly look down and panic, seeing the white water and waves crashing against the rocks. I hit the water with a slap, knocking the air right out of me.

For a couple of seconds, there’s quiet. Slowed, serene silence as the water bathes me, and I almost understand the rush they all go on about. But then I swim to the surface, ready to gasp for a breath and the second I do, a wave crashes on top of me, forcing me into the cliffs with force.

I frown, squeezing my eyes tight as I reach for my forehead. “Shit.”

Panic creeps up my throat, and I ease back from the rock.

As I turn, ready to swim around to the steps on the other side, someone grabs me.

“Baby.”

His arm wraps around my waist as his other hand plants firmly against the cliff. “The fuck were you thinking,” he pants into my wet hair.

He pulls me closer to him, holding me in his arms like I might break.

“I thought—” my voice shakes, and I swallow hard, fighting against the emotion.

He pulls me to the other side of the two rocks I’ve jumped between, then wraps my arms around his back and swims us towards the shore.

As soon as I can stand, I do, rushing up the beach in my soaking wet dress and feeling foolish for even jumping.

“You couldn’t do it, could you,” he says to my back, his voice thick with emotion.

My face screws up, and I keep walking.

“You couldn’t be alone. You had to cling to something, as always. You don’t even like him, do you?”

I come to a stop in the sand as tears burn in my eyes.

“You can’t be alone.”

I turn and look at him, his tux soaked through and his face utterly broken. “Why else, Luce? Tell me I’m wrong!”

I don’t know what he wants me to say, and looking at his face makes my throat ache. All week I’ve demanded he listen to me, and now I can’t form a single sentence.

My eyes blink and cut to the sand.

“Outta your hea—”

“No!” I ground out, shocking the both of us as I lift my head. “I won’t.” I step towards him. “I’m in my head, Elliot. I’m always in my head, and that’s never going to go away. It’s me. It’s the only thing I have, and you can’t control that right now or tell me to turn it off. I went to New York because of you! Because you told me it was the right thing to do.” My face screws up as tears fall. “I fell in love with you. I fell in love with you so bad, and then you cut me off.”

His nostrils flare, his taut jaw flexing as he watches me with his eyes shining. “I don’t want you to change who you are.”

“I know. You only wanted me to live my life. I just didn’t know there were rules.”

“You brought him here,” he grits out.

“And I’m so, so sorry.” My chin trembles. “I didn’t know you were coming, Elliot.”

“You let another man touch you,” he says as if it pains him.

I shake my head, running my fingers through my hair at a loss. “You cut me off, Elliot! You made me feel these… things, and then you dropped me as if none of it mattered!”

“I fell in love with you!” he bellows, and my heart all but stops. “You think you’re the only one? I fell in love with you before you left me. I fell in love with you before I even knew who you really were. From the first night I met you—from my friend to every look that followed. Every word shared. Every fear I found. I fell in love with you.”

Elliot Montgomery fell in love with me?

“And you chose to fall into someone else.”

“Ell, no.”

He steps forward and grasps my face in his large palm, his other hand sliding up the back of my neck as he pulls me to him. His lips part, mere inches from my own. “You know what’s worse than that, though, what keeps me awake at night?”

My tears run over my lips, and he wipes them away with his thumbs. “I still fucking love you.”

His mouth crashes to mine, coaxing my lips apart with a kiss so full of passion, it will be seared into my memory for an eternity.

Our desperation fuels us. Weeks of nothing, and now he’s kissing me. He’s showing me without any more words what this is.

“Elliot.”

He lifts me, holding me to him as he refuses to break our kiss. I’m weightless despite my soaked dress, completely lost to him as he carries us up the beach and to the steps.

With each step he takes we become a little more lost. A little more frantic. A little more in love.

There is no more restraint, and I feel it freely.