With Hearts to Hear| ✔

|38|

Killian grinned, his smile practically splitting his face. After his conversation with Ai, there had been a huge part of him that doubted this was the right choice. He had feared that she would just give him a flat no— and though it would not have deterred him from staying with her, he feared it may have made him somewhat reluctant to ask again in the future.

Luckily, he had not sensed a reluctance on her part, but a fear. His brave, beautiful woman didn't want things to change, in the fear that it would ruin the progress that they had already made. This new cautious, contemplative side to her was something that he was proud of her for— just a few years prior she had been reckless, and spontaneous all consequences be damned; but he did not want it to rob her of her courage to keep moving forward.

He was glad she was able to trust him when he promised her that she would not lose any security by taking the next step with him. He would always be there for her to lean on him, so she did not need to fear things ever being 'ruined' between them.

His grin, as bright as it was, sobered when he realised that they still had a battle lurking ahead of them. Quite a momentous one at that...

"You know we have to tell my mother right?"

"Yeah I know," Rachel nodded. She had been mentally preparing for the event since she had reunited with Killian all those weeks ago, a part of her had thought that it would have happened by now knowing just how pushy Adelia had been. She was somewhat surprised to realise that curdling dread that usually turned her stomach, did not come this time. "Did you tell her about Di?"

Killian wrapped his arms around her frame, cool fingers sliding under her shirt to caress the skin on her back as he rested his head on her lap with a sigh. He was admittedly buttering her up in case she got angry with him over his answer. He had not been sure what the right thing to do was in their situation, in fact he still was not sure that he had made the right choice.

Though he may not be sure it was the 'right' choice, he knew it was the choice he would stick by. He had made the choice that he thought would protect his family, and the Goddess above knew that if he had to make the choice again, he would probably make the same one.

"No, I didn't. I knew she would insist on meeting Diana and I didn't want to put you in that position. I wanted you to do it on your terms."

"Thank you..." Rachel smiled, her hands brushing through the dark waves on his head. She felt him tremble, when her nails scraped his scalp ever so gently. Her voice, just as cautious as her fingers, spoke: "Did you tell her about me?"

Rachel admittedly wasn't entirely sure what she wanted him to say. There was a part of her that wanted him to have told her straight away, just so that he could have stuck it to the woman; the side of her that did not want to be petty however, hoped that he had not. She wanted to keep them safe, secret for as long as possible— after all it was Adelia that had gotten it into her head that she wasn't good enough in the first place.

It was an impossible decision, on that she had put him in— albeit unwittingly. She suddenly felt guilty that they were having this conversation now and not the first week that they had been reunited.

"No, but between my constant trips into Willsden Brooke, my generally upbeat nature and all our gossiping pack members, she definitely knows." Killian chuckled, he had been incredibly surprised that she hadn't demanded that he tell her what was going on. It would seem the boundaries and consequences that he had set with her were working. "She's waiting for me to tell her, but I have no intention of doing that until I know we're on the same page about it."

Rachel could've swooned; every moment that she spent with him, she could feel herself falling for him more and more. How could she not? He was the kindest, most thoughtful man that she had ever met in her entire life.