novelraw Chapter 172: You Are Perfect The Way You Are
Chapter 172: You Are Perfect The Way You Are
Chapter 172: You Are Perfect The Way You Are
Lyse stared at the television then her gaze swung to Levi, her eyes wide with a mixture of shock and disbelief. "You... you made her do that?" she stammered, her voice barely a whisper. "You forced her to confess?"
Levi shook his head, his expression grim. "No, Lyse. I did not really force her. I gave her two choices, she went along with this one."
"But how?" Lyse asked, "why now?"
"Because i just found her." Levi said as he put his hands in his pockets.
Lyse frowned, confused. "Found her? What do you mean?"
Levi took a deep breath, his gaze fixed on the television screen. "She had been hiding. In a secluded villa, outside the city. I... I had been looking for her but I couldn’t find her."
Lyse felt a wave of dizziness wash over her. "You were looking for her? All this time?"
Levi nodded, his voice hoarse. "I knew that she was lying about what happened that evening, but you didnt. I knew she was capable of anything. I had to find her, so that she could tell you herself that I never touched her."
Lyse felt a strange mixture of emotions – anger, fear, and a flicker of something else, something she couldn’t quite name. "Why didn’t you tell me?" she demanded, her voice trembling. "Why did you keep me in the dark?"
Levi looked at her, his eyes filled with a mixture of guilt and pain. "You were so angry with me, you did not want to listen to a word I said."
Lyse looked at him, her gaze searching his. She saw a flicker of something in his eyes, a raw honesty that she could not deny even if she tried to.
"Nothing that I said matter to you, you wanted to believe that I would do that because you were afraid to love me... not that i could blame you for feeling that way." He continued, his voice sad.
A wave of realization washed over Lyse. She had been so blinded by fear, so consumed by doubt, that she had failed to see the truth. Levi had been honest with her, all along. It was she who had refused to believe him, who had allowed fear to dictate her every move.
"I am sorry, Levi," she whispered, her voice thick with emotion. "I am so sorry. I should never have doubted you when you tried to me that nothing happened between you two."
Levi reached out and took her hand, his touch sending a jolt of electricity through her. "It’s okay, Lyse. I understand you, I only wanted to make you believe me so that you could never doubt me again."
Lyse looked into his eyes, searching for forgiveness. She saw a flicker of something in his gaze, a vulnerability she had never seen before. She thought about how much time she had wasted fighting Levi, even though he had shown her time and time again that he was in her corner. She had wasted so much time and quite possibly ruined their chances of being together.
"How... how are we supposed to continue?" she asked, her voice trembling. "After all of this? I have ruined everything!"
"No, you have not." Levi said as he held her gaze, his eyes filled with a mixture of hope and apprehension. "I don’t know, Lyse. But I want to try to move on with you. I want to start over with you if you are willing."
Lyse felt a surge of hope, a flicker of warmth in the icy depths of her despair. "Start over?"
Levi nodded. "I want to take you on a date. A real date. Just the two of us."
Lyse felt a smile touch her lips. A real date. Just the two of them. It sounded simple, idyllic. Yet, after all they had been through, it felt like a miracle.
"A date?" she echoed, a playful lilt entering her voice.
Levi nodded, his eyes twinkling. "A proper date. Dinner, maybe a movie. I will even wear a tie. I never had time to court you, which is remiss of me. And now, I want to."
Lyse laughed, the sound light and carefree. "A tie? Court? Really? You sound like an old dude."
Levi grinned wryly. "I try my best, but at the end I am just an old dude."
Lyse felt a warmth spreading through her, a sense of peace she hadn’t felt in weeks. Maybe, just maybe, they could rebuild, piece by piece. Maybe they could overcome the pain, the betrayal, the fear.
She looked at him, her eyes filled with a mixture of hope and uncertainty. "Okay," she said, her voice barely a whisper. "A date it is."
Levi’s face lit up. "Today?"
Lyse stared wide eyed at him and shook her head.
"Why not?" Levi sulked.
"Cos I have to get a dress, and do my hair." She said self-consciously as a blush rose to her cheeks.
"You don’t have to do any additional thing to make yourself beautiful." Levi said as he drew closer, the intensity in his eyes making Lyse shiver. "You are perfect just the way you are."
Lyse swallowed at the intensity in his voice and when he drew even loser and moved her fair from the side of her face to behind her ear, she felt goosebumps rise in answer to the light graze of his fingers against her skin.
They stood staring into each other’s eyes, the atmosphere electric and charged. They struggled within themselves as they wanted to reach out and take a hold of the other.
"I don’t want to ever lose you." Levi said softly, his voice barely more than a whisper. "I want you to give me a chance to show you that I will do anything for you."
His hands ran down the bare skin of Lyse’s arms and just that touch elicited a hunger she had tried to bury and she found herself biting her bottom lip to stop herself from moaning aloud.