Page 221 of The Devil We Crave
“Achilles—“
“No. Let me say this, little prey.”
He inhales and exhales slowly.
"I'm not going to stand here and pretend I don’t know what I did. I learned every fucking thing about you before you ever knew who I was. I made sure the game was won before you even sat down to play, Yelena.”
He grips my hands tighter.
“I took away yourchoice, and I know exactly what that cost you, because Iknow you,” he hisses. “I know you better than anyone, maybe even including yourself. Which is why I know you’re as conflicted as I am over the simple fact that whatever we are now, it began with me cheating at the game. But here’s the part I don’t know how to move past or fix,” he sighs. “Even knowing that what I did was wrong, and that I took away your agency…”
I gasp when he lifts my knuckles and gently brushes his lips across them.
“I would do itallagain.”
His voice drags over my skin like the sensual, lethal edge of a blade.
“Everysinglething,” he growls. “Because the alternative is a version of my life without you in it, and that's not something I'm able or willing to accept.”
My throat bobs as his thumb traces across my knuckles.
"So now I'm giving you the one thing I should have given you from the start.”
His hands squeeze mine tightly, not letting go.
“I’m going to give you a choice, Yelena. A real one. Not one where I've already calculated the outcome."
My pulse skips as his voice drops lower.
"Stay, or walk.Your choice. But know that if you stay, I will spend the rest of my life making sure you never regret it,” he growls. “And also know that I will never,everapologize for seeing you, and instantly falling in love with you, and then moving heaven and hell to make you mine."
My mouth falls open.
I don’t need to think about it anymore. I don’t need to weigh out how I feel.
Because in this moment I realize that if our roles were reversed,I’d do the same thing.
Maybe that makes me as crazy as he is. Maybe it’s just that hemakes methis crazy. But knowing him like I know him now…seeing him for what he is, and loving him for that… If I was given the choice of leaving it to fate or cheating and makingdamn surehe was mine?
I’d choose the latter.
Every. Single. Time.
“Achilles—”
His hand slips from mine and his finger touches my lips, silencing me.
“Before you answer,” he murmurs.
He tugs away the blindfold.
For half a second, I don't know where I am. I mean I’m on a roof in the city, obviously. But?—
Oh my God.
It hits me when I turn and see the roof of the Drakos estate across the street.
I know exactly where I am.
