When Her "Death" Couldn't Break Him (Cecilia and Nathaniel)

Chapter 2046

"Neither do I," Yannick admitted. "My friend says that if he lets go now, he'll wake up every day regretting it hurting far worse than any embarrassment he feels today."

He was painfully aware that he had fallen for a woman as unusual as Jocelyn.

He wasn't claiming eternal love, but if she asked for a breakup, he doubted he could survive the blow.

That fear was what had made him cut her off mid-sentence earlier.

Perhaps true love really did turn a man into something small and timid.

"Then continue being with her," Calvin said simply. "It's always better than separating."

He spoke from experience; he himself had never even been granted the chance to stand beside Cecilia.

Those were exactly the words Yannick had been hoping to hear.

"Okay," Yannick said, his tone light yet edged with amusement. "Stay together it is. When the thrill dries up, we'll talk about what comes next."

He doubted he could adore Jocelyn forever. Sooner or later, the excitement would fade—just as it had with every woman before her, even that first love he once swore he would remember until his last breath.

Yannick ended the call, tossed the phone onto the passenger seat, and fixed his eyes on the dark highway. The car surged toward Sven's townhouse, neon streaks sliding over the windshield like restless ghosts.

Nicholas' private villa crouched beneath thick midnight clouds, its stone façade an obsidian silhouette of locked shutters and sleeping balconies.

the wrought-iron door and pressed the bell again.

mahogany. "Mr. Nicholas!" Her voice cracked under the weight

The pounding dragged him

cut across his brow.

Nicholas, I know you're inside," she called, fists drumming the panels. "Say

name slid through the fog in Nicholas' head. Clarity returned,

the wall, he staggered upright,

"What is it?"

indifferent-the same measured cadence he had

hit Jocelyn like sudden rain. At least he was

tried all day

security monitor. "I'm fine,"

she had been holding escaped at

and said, "If there's nothing else,

last, searching glance at the villa, then turned, her heels

"Wait," Nicholas called suddenly.

stopped mid-step. "Is something

I'll

and waited, as proper as a student outside a headmaster's

opened. Nicholas appeared in fresh clothes, stubble trimmed, a hint of

could see the weight he had lost. Lines of fatigue etched his cheeks, and dark shadows clung beneath his