Total pages in book: 142
Estimated words: 137017 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 685(@200wpm)___ 548(@250wpm)___ 457(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 137017 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 685(@200wpm)___ 548(@250wpm)___ 457(@300wpm)
“Allie—” He met my eyes, and there was no hiding the deep red blush on his cheeks.
Such. A. Teddy. Bear.
Gosh, I just wanted to plop myself on his lap and snuggle into him.
“I really like you, Kalon. I can’t tell you that I’m in love with you, because I’m not there yet, but my feelings are strong enough that if anyone tried to take you from me, I’d tear them to pieces with my bare hands. They’re enough that I refuse to stand idly by while someone else tries to take you for their own.” I propped my head up on my hand and smiled. “Will you answer me now?”
He stared at me for a moment before getting to his feet and walking around the table. He pulled me up and cradled my face, gently kissing me. “You are the most precious person in the world to me, Allie. It kills me that you don’t know that.” He brushed his nose across my cheek. “Everything you feel for me, I feel for you a hundredfold. Does that answer your question?”
My heartbeat was almost frantic, and I had no choice but to accept what he was saying. I wrapped my arms around him and hugged him tightly, soaking in his warmth for as long as I could.
If I meant that much to him, then he would believe me if I told him the truth, right?
“Kalon,” I said softly. “Will you carry me to the bed?”
“I’d carry you across the entire empire and back if you asked.” He kissed my temple and swept me up into his arms, and I snuggled against his body with my arms around his neck.
The journey from the table to the bed was all too short, and my stomach sank as he lowered me onto the bed and let me go.
“Will you sit with me?”
He tucked the blanket over my lap. “That isn’t what you wanted to talk about, is it?”
I shook my head and winced. That was a mistake. “Please.”
“I can’t make it much clearer that I’d do anything you ask of me.” He sat down on the bed and took my hand, gently kissing my fingers. “What do you want to talk about?”
I looked down at our hands as my stomach rolled with nausea. “I need you to promise me something.”
“What is it?”
“No matter what I tell you, promise me that you’ll listen until the end. I need you to not pass judgement on what I’m saying, no matter how crazy it sounds, and it’s going to sound crazy. Will you do that for me?”
He ran his tongue across his teeth, holding my gaze intently. “I promise.”
“Thank you.” I tightened my grip on his hand until he shifted, adjusting it so that our fingers slipped together, and I could smile up at him. “This is my sixth life, and my fifth in this world. And in the first four of my lives, we were together.”
Chapter Forty
In Another Life
Kalon’s hand twitched in mine, but he stayed true to his word and didn’t say anything.
“Gosh, I don’t even know how to explain this.” I pressed my face into my free hand. “It’s so complicated.”
“Take all the time you need.” He shuffled up the bed closer to me. “I’m not going anywhere, Allie.”
“I can’t even start from the beginning because my memories are so spotty,” I said softly. I was going to have to use terms he understood, too. “So… Here goes, I guess. In my last life, I was Alicia Montgomery, a twenty-four-year-old law expert. I grew up in a world that was completely different from this one. Just to explain, in that world there’s no magic, no divine power, and while there are wars, there are no longer empires. Kingdoms still exist, and I grew up in one, although you wouldn’t recognise it as a kingdom in the way they exist here. The transport evolved from horse and carriage to carriages that could be powered by an external source. We called them ‘cars.’ I was driving my car when I was hit by someone who was driving while drunk, and I died.”
Kalon tilted his head to the side. “Didn’t people drive it for you like they do here? Could your servant not avoid it?”
That… was kind of cute.
How did I explain this?
“Um… I wasn’t a noble in that world, so I didn’t have a servant. At that point in the history of the world, there were many, many more commoners than nobles. It was normal for commoners—and even the Royal Family in my country—to operate their own transportation,” I explained, almost laughing at the look of sheer horror that flashed across his face. “Anyway, after I died, I woke up in front of someone who called himself God. He told me I’d died too soon and was eligible for reincarnation, but there was someone in another world who was dying and whose body was compatible with my soul. That was Alicia Vermillion.