But I wasn’t.
I hated his behavior and all the ways he did me wrong, and altogether I didn’t want to let him go. I didn’t want him to letmego.
‘Hey, what happened?’ He interrupted his confession, sensing my visible distress.
‘Nothing. I’m peachy,’ I muttered, amazed at how ineffectively clumsy I was in hiding my emotions.
‘Peachy!?’ The word amused him, sneaking both of his palms to mold on the round shapes of my posterior. ‘Hmmm...peachy,’ he chuckled deliciously in my ear, rushing his lips to the nape of my neck. A second longer and our discussion would have been history, but I couldn’t give in to him so easily.
‘We’re getting nowhere like this,’ I whispered as the anguishing piercing was sliding against my skin, making every single inch of me crawl. And I did meaneveryinch.
‘What are you talking about? We’re getting to dessert.’
‘For someone who hated being out of the house, you’re certainly thriving in the city.’ I caught his face between my palms and forced him to look at me. ‘Are you going to tell me?’
‘Ok. I guess it’s the right time for me to say this. Nothing can jinx it from now on.’ He took a short pause to get on my nerves again but quickly continued ‘During my trip, I visited someone who holds an important function in the healthcare department. Names are irrelevant. But let’s just say, I pushed someone up on the transplant list.’
‘Sebastian!?’
‘Yes. He’s up first when a donor arrives.’
‘Oh my God, Ferris. I can’t believe it,’ I jumped around his neck, burying my head against his chest.
I wanted to kiss him, but it didn’t seem fair, not because he didn’t deserve it, but because he did. For what he accomplished, he deserved an honest kiss, while my heart was still in doubt regarding this particular king.
‘There’s more...’
‘More!?’ I asked, unsure of whatmorecould it be.
‘Yes, I asked Alfred to talk to the board of the Echo’s City School of Elite. They need an education, and I will make sure they get the best one. If you agree, Nat can start hers next week and Seb when the doctors give their ok.’
I was speechless. Like selecting the mute button on a remote-control, randomly moving my lips, but without any words coming out.
I must have stayed still for a good while trying to process all that information.
‘Say something,’ he grinned. ‘Yes, no... Anything.’
‘I have no idea what I could say. This wasn’t part of our deal.’ Was he doing all of this without asking anything in return?
‘It’s not. Consider it more like a bonus for putting up with me. I know I can be more thandifficultat times.’
I knew exactly what he was referring to. The moments when he crossed all the lines, racing for madness. The knife, the ledge, the toy but most of all, the moments when he was pushing my boundaries to somewhere between craving and hate.
‘I’ve already talked to the babysitter. She’ll drive them to and also pick them up from school every day. Of course, under the watchful eyes of one of my guards.’ Ferris cared to add that to hismiracles list.
‘You thought of everything.’
‘I always think about a lot of things,’ his tone thickened with subtexts, opening a hundred invitations to all devious things.
‘Such as?’ I was playing fool, only for the sake of it.
The night seemed different. This night he seemed different and altogether the same. I was seeing him in a new light. What Brax has told me had something to do with it, and even if I promised myself I wouldn’t mistake compassion with sentiments, I was doing just that. My body was listening to my soul— or the other way around, but all I knew was that my demons were hungering to play with his.
‘Such as dessert,’ his smile spread into a full grin, casting an undeniable proposal.
‘Then dessert it is!’
Chapter 12
