MIA POV
I walked further away from the house, the sound of the boys' laughter and Jay's playful shouting fading into the background. I stopped near the edge of the pond, where the water was still and dark, reflecting the evening sky.
I didn't want Jay to see this. She was finally glowing again—finally feeling like herself. The last thing she needed was to worry about my mess.
"Hey, Mia," Jake's voice came through the speaker. It was that same smooth, persistent tone that used to charm me but now just made my skin crawl.
"Look, Jake, I already told you the answer," I said, my voice low and sharp. I leaned against a stone pillar, watching the ripples in the pond.
"Mia, think again," Jake said, and I could practically hear the arrogant smirk on his face. "Jare doesn't care about you. Come on, just date me. I've been waiting for you forever."
I felt a pang in my chest at the mention of Jare, but I forced my voice to stay steady. "Jake, please. I already told you the answer. It's no. It's always going to be no."
"Come on, Mia," Jake pushed, his tone dropping into something more manipulative. "Don't be like that. You're alone in that big house even when it's full of people. I'm the only one who actually sees you."
I was about to snap back at him and hang up, but a shadow moved in my peripheral vision. I froze.
Standing a few feet away, partially hidden by the trellis, was a figure. My heart skipped a beat. In the dim light, I could see the broad shoulders and the familiar, rigid posture.
It was Jare.
He was standing perfectly still, his hands shoved deep into his pockets. I couldn't see his eyes, but I could feel the intensity of his gaze fixed on my phone. He had heard everything.
"Mia? You still there?" Jake's voice cracked through the silence, sounding tinny and annoying compared to the heavy atmosphere between me and the man standing in the shadows.
I looked at Jare, my breath catching in my throat. I wanted to turn the speaker off, to run away, to explain—but I couldn't move.
Jare stepped out of the shadows, the moonlight hitting his face. He didn't look angry. He looked... cold. But there was a muscle leaping in his jaw that told a different story.
"Tell him," Jare said, his voice a low, dangerous rumble that made the small hairs on my arms stand up.
"Jare..." I whispered.
"Tell him why you're saying no, Mia," Jare commanded, taking a step closer toward me, his eyes never leaving mine. "Tell him who you're actually waiting for."
"Jake, I will call you later," I snapped, hanging up the phone before he could get another word in. My heart was thumping against my ribs so hard it felt like it was going to bruise.
I turned to face Jare, crossing my arms over my chest to stop my hands from shaking. "What do you want?"
"Why didn't you tell him?" Jare asked. He took another step closer, his presence overwhelming the small space by the pond. He looked like he wanted to punch the phone, or the pond, or maybe just Jake.
I felt a surge of bitterness rise up in my throat. "What do you care?" I shot back, my voice trembling despite my best efforts. "It's not like you really care anyway."
Jare flinched. It was a small movement, almost invisible to anyone else, but I saw it. He stopped right in front of me, close enough that I could smell the faint scent of charcoal and expensive soap that always clung to him.
"You think I don't care?" he rasped. His eyes were dark, searching mine with an intensity that made me want to look away, but I refused to be the one to break.
"Yes! I don't think you care because you suddenly broke up with me!" I screamed at him, the dam finally breaking. All the years of silence, the nights spent staring at my phone, the agony of being in the same room but worlds apart—it all came crashing out. "I was literally begging for you to answer me, and you didn't care! I waited for you, Jare, for so fucking long!"
"Mia," Jare said, his voice sounding shattered, reaching out for me.
"What the fuck, Jare?!" I stepped back, hitting the stone pillar, my voice raw and cracking. "Don't call me like that! After you threw me away? Don't call me like you actually give a damn! You don't know how it fucking feels! I wanted to die—"
Before the last word could fully leave my lips, Jare moved. He was too fast, a blur of shadow and desperation. He didn't just step toward me; he lunged, his hands framing my face with a grip that was trembling.
He kissed me.
It wasn't the slow, distant Jare I remembered. This was a crash, a collision of teeth and salt and years of suppressed misery. It was a kiss that tasted like a confession. It was meant to stop the words, to stop the crying, to stop the pain I was pouring out.
I struggled for a split second, my fists pounding against his rock-hard chest, but my strength dissolved as he groaned into my mouth, a broken, haunted sound. He pulled me flush against him, his arms wrapping around my waist so tight I could barely draw air, as if he were trying to pull me physically inside his own ribcage.
He pulled back just an inch, his lips red, his forehead pressed hard against mine. His breath was hitching in a way I'd never heard from the "invincible" Jare.
"Don't ever say that," he choked out, his eyes wild and bloodshot. "Don't ever say you wanted to die. I broke my own heart to keep you away from the mess my family was in, Mia. I thought if I let you go, you'd be safe. I thought if I didn't look at you, I wouldn't drag you into the hell I was living."
"You dragged me into a different hell, Jare," I sobbed, my hands clutching his shirt, my tears soaking into the fabric.
"I know," he whispered, his voice cracking. "I know. And I'm sorry. I'm so fucking sorry."
He kissed me again, deeper this time, a frantic, pleading rhythm that told me he wasn't letting go ever again. But I couldn't just get lost in it—not without knowing why. I needed the truth to be the anchor, or this was just another dream that would shatter by morning.
I used every ounce of my strength to pull back, pressing my palms against his chest. My breath was coming in ragged gasps.
"Please... tell me now," I whispered, my eyes searching his. "No more ghosts, Jare. Tell me why."
Jare's face contorted, a mix of agony and raw fury flickering in his eyes. He let out a harsh, jagged breath, his hands dropping from my face to grip my shoulders.
"What do you want me to tell you, Mia?" he rasped, the words tumbling out like they had been poisoning him from the inside. "That when my sister almost got raped, me and Percy created an underground where we save people from human trafficking? That we hunted down the monsters who did it? Some of those people found out it was me, Mia. They were going to target you to get to me. I had no choice but to push you away. I couldn't let you be the price for what I was doing."
I froze. The weight of his confession hit me like a physical blow. All this time, I thought he had just stopped loving me. But he had been playing a dangerous game with devils just to keep me out of their reach. He hadn't been cold; he had been a shield.
"Jare..." I breathed, my heart aching for the burden he'd been carrying alone. I looked up at him, my voice trembling with the one question that still mattered more than the danger. "Do you... do you still love me?"
He didn't answer. Not with words.
Instead, he surged forward and kissed me again. This time, it wasn't frantic or desperate—it was deep, certain, and filled with a lifetime's worth of devotion. It was the answer I'd been waiting for, written in the way he held me like I was the only thing keeping him grounded in this world.
He pulled back just enough to graze my lips with his. "I never stopped," he growled against my mouth. "It was the hardest thing I've ever done, letting you go. But I'm done being a martyr, Mia. You're staying right here."
I wrapped my arms around his neck, pulling him back down. The danger was still out there, the underground still existed, and the wedding was only three days away—but for the first time in months, I wasn't alone.
"Don't you dare push me away again, Jare Mariano," I warned, my voice thick with emotion "I don't care about the danger. I'd rather be in the line of fire with you than safe and alone."
"Never again," he promised, his grip tightening as he pulled me back into the shadows of the pond, away from the prying eyes of the house. "I'll kill anyone who tries to take you"
I broke away from the hug so fast he stumbled. Before he could even ask what was wrong, I swung my foot and kicked him right in the shin. Hard.
"Owww! Baby, what was that for?" Jare groaned, jumping back and rubbing his leg, looking at me with pure shock.
"Asshole!" I hissed, my eyes blazing even though my cheeks were still wet with tears. "It took you almost two years to say that?! Was it really that hard for you? Two years of me crying and you acting like a robot?!"
The emotional relief was gone, replaced by two years of pent-up feminine rage. I turned around, scanning the ground near the edge of the pond until I spotted it: a perfect, sturdy-looking fallen branch.
I snatched it up like a sword.
"Mia... please, no," Jare said, his eyes widening as he started to back away. The man who leads a secret underground organization and takes down human traffickers was actually looking intimidated by a girl with a stick.
"Oh, yes!" I marched toward him. "You think you can just kiss me and everything's fine? You think being a 'noble' Mariano justifies making me miserable for seven hundred days?!"
"Mia, I was trying to—"
Whack!
I swung the stick and hit him across the legs. It wasn't hard enough to actually bruise him but it made a satisfying thwack against his trousers.
"That's for the first month!" I yelled.
Whack!
"That's for the second month!"
"Mia, stop! Someone's going to hear you!" Jare hissed, trying to catch the stick, but he was laughing a little under his breath now, which only made me angrier.
"Let them hear! Let Keifer see his scary brother-in-law getting beaten with a tree branch!" I swung again. "This is for every time you walked past me in the hallway and didn't even say hello!"
Jare finally caught the end of the stick, pulling me toward him until I stumbled into his chest. He took the stick from my hand and tossed it into the pond.
"Okay, okay! I deserve that," he muttered, wrapping his arms around my waist and pinning my arms down so I couldn't hit him anymore. "I deserve a lot more than a stick. But can we stop the violence before Percy comes out here with a camera?"
I huffed, my chest heaving, leaning my forehead against his shoulder. "I hate you, Jare"
"I know," he whispered, kissing the top of my head and holding me tight. "But you're stuck with me now. For the next hundred years."
"You better believe it," I muttered, finally melting into his hold. "And if you ever go ghost again, I'm coming back with an iron rod next time."
The anger, the stick, the years of pain—it all dissolved the moment his lips crashed back onto mine. This wasn't the disciplined Jare that the world saw. This was the man who had been starving for me for two straight years.
I didn't even realize how far we had moved until my back hit the rough bark of a tree. Jare pinned me there, his body a heavy, burning weight against mine. His hands, usually so steady and controlled, were frantic now, sliding up under my shirt. The touch of his cold palms against my warm skin made me gasp into the kiss.
He pulled back just an inch, his teeth grazing my lower lip until he bit down—not enough to bleed, but enough to make my head spin.
"Jare..." I moaned, my fingers tangling deep into his hair, pulling him closer to the heat.
"Fuck, baby," he growled against my skin, his voice thick and wrecked. "Two years. It's been two goddamn years, and hearing my name from your lips still feels like heaven."
He buried his face in the crook of my neck, inhaling deeply as if he were trying to memorize my scent all over again. I felt his heartbeat thudding violently against mine, a mirror of my own.
"I thought I could forget," he muttered, his breath hot against my collarbone. "I thought if I stayed away long enough, the fire would go out. But it just got hotter, Mia. Every time I saw you and couldn't touch you... it was torture."
I arched my back as his hands moved higher, his thumbs brushing the underside of my ribs. "Then don't stop," I breathed, my voice trembling. "Don't ever stop again."
He looked up at me, his eyes dark with a possessiveness that would have terrified me if it weren't so beautiful.
"I'm not going anywhere," he promised, his voice a low vibration that echoed through my entire body. "After Jay's wedding... it's our turn. And I'm never letting you out of my sight again."
He claimed my mouth again, a hard, soul-searing kiss that told me the wait was finally over.
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