Lahat ng Kabanata ng After The Divorce: Ex-Husband Regrets And Begs Me: Kabanata 281 - Kabanata 290

ALISTAIR'S POV:​I force myself to turn my head back and look at her. She is standing right there in her light blue dress, her dark hair hanging over her chest, her green eyes searching my face with a desperate kind of curiosity.​For a second, I come so close to breaking down and telling her every single thing that has nothing to do with Vladimir. I want to tell her about the absolute hell I went through during those final months in this house. I want to tell her how I spent every night lying awake in my bed, listening to her footsteps in the hallway, fighting the urge to get up and walk into her room. I want to tell her that I have been completely, insanely in love with her since I was fifteen years old, and that leaving the country was the only way I could keep myself from ruining her life.​The truth is sitting right on the tip of my tongue, heavy and dangerous.​But the fear hits me like a bucket of ice water. I am too terrified of what happens after those words leave my mouth. I

ELARA'S POV:​I walk down the long hallway toward my bedroom. The air in the corridor is cool, and the only light comes from the small brass wall lights scattered along the wallpaper. My shoes make a quiet tapping sound on the floor. The rest of the house is quiet now, the loud noise of dinner finally dying down into the late hours of the night.​I open the door to my bedroom, step inside, and push it closed behind me.​I toss my shoes near the closet and lie down flat on top of the bed. I lie there on my back, staring up at the white ceiling in the dark.The big glass window looks right out over the side garden, right down at the red roses my father planted years ago, and the wooden bench where I used to sit for hours and think about my life.​I lay there and think about Alistair.​I think about the way he sat across from me during dinner, his gray eyes following every small move I made with my hands. He looked like he was trying to memorize every detail of my face, like he was terri

​ALISTAIR'S POV:​I walk into Elara's room and I feel like I am stepping straight into a dream.​The space feels soft, warm, and quiet, lit only by a single small lamp sitting on the wooden nightstand. The walls are still painted that pale pink color, the white furniture is elegant, and the large window looks right out over the dark garden below. The room smells completely like her, a floral scent that has been haunting my mind for seven long years.​She is sitting right in the middle of the bed. Her legs are tucked up under her dress, and her hands are clasped tightly together in her lap. She looks terrified. Her dark green eyes are wide, her lips are slightly parted, and her whole body is tense with anticipation.​I push the heavy door shut behind me. The tiny click of the latch sounding out in the quiet room feels strangely loud.​I just stand there near the threshold for a long moment, staring at her face. She is so beautiful. She is far more beautiful than I remembered. She is mo

​ALISTAIR'S POV:​I am standing right in front of Elara and she is so close to me now. Way too close. She is close enough that I can see the warm lamplight catching the tiny flecks of gold hidden deep inside her dark green eyes. She is close enough that I can track the soft curve of her lips, the delicate line of her jaw, and the smooth skin of her neck. She is close enough that I can actually feel the heat radiating off her skin, wrapping around me like a physical force pulling me down.​I want to kiss her.​I imagined what it would feel like to finally press my mouth against hers, to taste her skin, to hold her tight in my arms and never let her go again.​And now here she is. Standing right in front of me in her bedroom. She is looking up at me with those green eyes that have haunted every single night of my life since I was a teenager.​She leans in slowly. I lose all control of my own body, and I lean in too.​Our lips are barely half an inch apart.​I can feel her warm breath fl

​ELARA'S POV:​I wake up feeling like I have literally been run over by a truck and that is not an exaggeration at all. My head is pounding with a dull, heavy ache right behind my eyes. My eyelids feel gritty, swollen, and raw from crying into my pillow for hours. My entire body aches with the deep kind of bone-tired exhaustion that only comes from lying wide awake all night long, replaying the exact same terrifying moment over and over again in your head.​I did not sleep for a single minute. I spent the whole night staring at the walls, thinking about Alistair. I thought about the way he stood in my room, the heat coming off his body, and that fraction of an inch between our faces. The almost kiss. The look in his gray eyes right before he stopped himself. And the cold, quick way he turned around and walked out my door.​I roll slowly onto my back and stare up at the ceiling. The pale pink walls are glowing now in the early morning sunlight, looking soft, warm, and familiar. Outside