Chapter 244 - "How Can I Deserve Someone Like You?"

????Slow dance with you

Spinning you around by the Walmart sign

And moving our feet over the painted white lines

Getting close to you

Making the most of whatever we got

Even if it's just a slow dance in a parking lot????

The song rang in the background and they broke the kiss as he twirled her and then she ended up collapsing on his chest. His hands moved to her stomach as she trembled against his chest. 

"Santiago," Persephone moaned as he rubbed his chin against her neck. 

????Slow dance with you

Spinning you around by the Walmart sign

And moving our feet over the painted white lines

Getting close to you

Making the most of whatever we got

Even if it's just a slow dance in a parking lot????

"Yes, Red," Santiago rapsed as his mouth ran on her bare neck and collarbone. 

"What are we doing?" Persephone asked as she woke up from a daze. It was impossible to not react to his touches. She wanted him to extinguish the fire in her body. 

"We were supposed to be just dancing on your favourite song," Santiago rasped. "But it seems, we would never be able to complete the song without getting lost in each other's bodies." 

Never had they ever completed the whole song without getting lost in each other's bodies. 

"Ah, it seemed something like this happened before too," Persephone said in a breathless voice. 

"All the time, Red. All the time," Santiago answered, sucking on her neck. "Once you expressed your wish to dance with me every night we are together but I couldn't fulfil your wish as you forgot about it. And of course, nobody but I am the one to blame for this." 

Persephone had shocked him by using her first wish by asking him, her captor, to dance with her every single night they would be together. At that time, he had thought that this girl was crazy. How could she waste away her precious wish just like that? It was only after he got to know her that she was a simple character. She never worried about the riches or the power her life had to offer. All she wanted was to taste what freedom tastes like! 

"I brought you here today to show you the place where our story begins. It's the place where Villain and Red fell in love," Santiago further said as he twirled her around to make her face him. 

She stared at him, unblinking. 

He was…

He was finally confessing…. 

"Persephone, this is the place where I fell for you again," Santiago said, his eyes burning into her. She didn't know how to react so she just stood there frozen. "You knocked me out at the very first glance but I was a stubborn bastard! I would never admit that my enemy's daughter owns my heart." 

Falling in love was easy but claiming her as his was tougher. Even if his heart knew that he had fallen for her, his brain would never let him accept it. She was, after all, Alessandro Marino's daughter. Wanting her was like consuming poison with his own hands. 

"But who could stop oneself from loving someone one shouldn't?" Santiago chuckled, self-deprecating. "Because I can't stop myself from loving you even when I know I don't deserve to love someone like you." 

Santiago never deserved Persephone even after all the sacrifices he had made. She was innocent in her own way. She was thrown into a world she didn't deserve. He erased her memories of him. 

It was also true that if not for Eleanora, he wouldn't have dared to even think of a lifetime with her. But he knew that they belonged together. If they separated, they would be miserable for all their lives. He also knew that life with each other wouldn't be roses and wine but at least they could fight and scream and still love together. He wanted her and everything she had to offer. 

"You were pure, unblemished and I wanted to taint you for my personal pleasure. I wanted to break you because I couldn't stand someone as beautiful and extraordinary as you belonging to someone else," He whispered, gripping her chin to make her glossy green eyes meet his blue one that she seemed to love a lot. "You were a masterpiece that an ignorant heathen like me had never seen before. I wanted to drag you with my world because you belonged to me. Yet, I threw you away because I couldn't bring myself to taint you! I always wanted you to be the original you." 

"It's also true that the Percy from my childhood was a very important part of my life. I always wanted to go back to her but never dared to because I couldn't imagine having her hate the man I had become," Santiago said after a while. "I didn't want her to know that the boy she saved fell into eternal darkness once again. All her sacrifices went to waste. I thought she would forget me but she didn't."

"She always remembered me," Santiago whispered as he put his hand on her heart. "Here." 

Persephone swallowed her whimper back. See, she knew that the tattoo here belonged to him! 

How dumb they both have been from the beginning? If he had recognised the eyes on her tattoo, if she had recognised him as the boy she always yearned from...how different their stories had been. 

But someone rightly said you must feel pain for a relationship to know its real value. 

"You know what?" He asked with a sad laugh. " I was jealous of the boy you were in love with even without knowing that the boy I was jealous of all along was no one else but me." 

"You didn't save me just once, Percy but every time I was down. You appeared in my life one way or another," He said, his forehead meeting hers. "How could I even deserve someone like you?"

....

Author Note: I was supposed to be on a short hiatus, but here I am again!