Everlasting Bonds - COMPLETE

Chapter 37

POV: Lark

My heart was pounding in my chest.

Before tonight I had been resolved to keep my feelings to myself. As much as it was going to hurt, I had planned to tell Luka that the kiss was a mistake; even if that was the furthest from the truth of what I actually felt.

But hearing Greyson's poem and seeing the way he was looking at me tonight... lit something in my chest that I don't think I had felt for a long time.

Courage.

Even though Grey and I weren't touching, we still sat close together. The velvet fabric soft and comforting beneath my fingers. The last poet of the night was up on stage and I couldn't focus on anything she was saying.

All I could think about was this electricity that I had felt ever since Greyson sat back down and I whispered in his ear. He hadn't said anything. Just... looked at me with earnest hope.

I loved him.

I loved all of them.

I might have been the most selfish person alive, but I couldn't bring myself to care anymore. We spent nine years apart. Nine years where they could have easily given up on me or forgotten about me.

But this tether that formed all those years ago refused to break.

Stealing a glance at Grey, I realized that he wasn't watching the performance either. He was watching me. So intensely that it made me flinch a little and that electricity I had felt between us was starting to creep up my body.

"I need some air. Can we go outside, please?" I asked him quietly.

Without a word he got up and took my hand. Leading me outside and to the alleyway next to the café. The back door was cracked open and the smell of coffee and tea wafted outside.

I rest my back against the brick wall, shutting my eyes for a moment and appreciating the coolness of the night air on my skin. When I opened them back up, Greyson was a mirror image of me on the opposite wall of the alley.

His eyes weren't closed though. They were still on me. He opened his mouth before shutting it quickly again. Then he seemed to decide something. "Are you alright?". The question didn't sound right as it left his mouth. Almost like he wanted to say or ask something else.

I was having a similar debate in my head. I wanted to say, I love you. What came out instead was, "Just overwhelmed. It was getting warm in there".

A muscle in his jaw clenched and he folded his arms across his chest. He hadn't brought his jacket outside and the dark blue t-shirt he was wearing gave me an excellent view of his biceps as he moved.

He knew that wasn't the whole truth.