Promise

Chapter 25: Breaking Promises

Christian

It hurt when she blinked because I couldn't see her eyes.

Robyn didn't help my case by holding my gaze the entire time, not looking down to the floor like she usually did around me. It made me unreasonably happy that she just looked at me. I always had eyes on me and most of the time I hated it but hers? I loved it.

Raising money for cancer was a no brainer for me. I already funded more than half the wing at Mt. Sinai myself. But, if I had to attend shitty events with shitty people who donated their shitty money to make themselves feel less shitty about themselves while I smiled and talked to them in all their monumental shittiness, it would certainly make my situation a hundred times better if I had a woman as beautiful as Robyn Hale in my arms.

"You got better at dancing," she said, finally.

"Was I not good at 17?" I asked, amused.

She shrugged. She actually shrugged. "You were. But then again, I didn't have much to compare your skills against."

"Why?"

"Because no one ever came up to me and asked me." She raised an arch brow. "Who do I have to thank for that?"

"Yeah, well, everyone wanted their hands on you," I chuckled. "And I didn't like that very much."

She sighed. "You're going to give a girl a complex, you know?"

"How would I do that?"

"The most handsome man in New York has danced multiple dances with me. Gives a girl a complex, cuore mio."

I laughed softly. "Works both ways, Robyn. I've only consistently ever danced with you at events and you are the most beautiful girl in the world."

She rolled her eyes, the disbelief evident in them. I only wished she could see herself the way I saw her. Then, maybe she'd know that quite literally nothing in the world shined as bright as her.

"Your speech was beautiful."

"Thank you."

"Do you miss her?" She asked before wincing. "Sorry, stupid question."

I smiled because she was nervous and I found that ridiculously endearing. "I do miss her. Every single day."

"What your mom said was so beautiful. About being a person the world can't let go of," she put out carefully, her eyes looking into mine. They were so fucking beautiful.

She was so fucking beautiful.

"I try to live up to it every single day."

"But," she hesitated, "you know that you already are, right?"

"I am... what?"

"A person the world can't let go of."

"Oh?"

She nodded. "Of course. The world doesn't mean all seven billion of us, Christian. The world is what you make of it and what you consider to be important. In your life, it means your family and your sisters. I've known Ariadne and Bella my entire life. They would take a bullet for you any time, any day. Your dad... I know it's complicated, but he loves you–you make him so proud all the time. I can see it in his eyes. Damon and Francis? They love you too in their own alpha male way," she chuckled. "They would never let anything happen to you either. You don't have to try to live up her words every day because you already have just by being you. Your world–your family–can never let go of you, cuore mio."

Suddenly dizzy, I pulled back and twirled her under my arm, dipping her parallel to the floor and held her there, my nose gliding down hers.

"And what about you?" I asked, hoarsely.