Total pages in book: 81
Estimated words: 76390 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 382(@200wpm)___ 306(@250wpm)___ 255(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 76390 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 382(@200wpm)___ 306(@250wpm)___ 255(@300wpm)
She looked at him, pale and confused. “I don’t understand.” And she was afraid to. She watched him pull out something from his back pocket and was shocked to see a frog mask.
“I want you to put it on me,” he said gutturally. “Please.” His voice was ragged when she didn’t make a move to take it.
Her heart was stuttering now. Stupid heart. How could it be so excited to get broken all over again? It would happen, sooner or later. It always did.
Even as everything inside Nik told him he was leaving himself open for more heartbreak, he forced himself to keep his hand outstretched. Frog mask in his hand, heart on his fucking sleeve.
“Please.” The whole world was hearing him beg now. But he didn’t give a damn. He just needed Daria to take it.
Unable to bear the desperate look in Nik’s eyes, Daria reached for the mask, and her heart lurched at the way tension visibly left Nik’s powerful frame.
Her hands shook as she put the mask on, conscious of the way Nik’s gaze didn’t stray from her the entire time.
Around them, everyone Nik had paid to have pandas with them showed up, and heart in his goddamn throat, he waited for Daria to realize what was happening.
Stepping back when the mask was secure on his face, Daria saw the crowd shifting around them, and her lips parted in silent shock as she saw pandas. Everywhere.
Panda kites. Panda balloons. Panda cup holders. Panda shirts. And oh God, was that a bare-chested guy with a panda tattoo on his beer belly?
When Daria looked back at him, her eyes were bright with tears that she wasn’t allowing herself to shed. “Nik...”
He didn’t think he had heard a sound more beautiful than his name on her lips, and he had to swallow before he, too, started fighting back tears like a goddamn kid.
He thought about all the twenty-eight frogs that she had met and loved, and it no longer angered him. If anything, the thought humbled him, knowing that the woman who had her heart broken so many damn times could still find the strength to love the worst frog of all.
Nik sank to one knee. It was a fucking embarrassing position, but he knew now that it was the only thing to do to make Daria understand just how much he loved her.
Everything had been dramatic and exaggerated with Daria.
Throwing a bottle at his head twice when they first met...
Pretending she was leaving him, empty suitcase in hand when they last fought...
It was his turn now.
“I want to believe the same way you believe in love...” Nik swallowed. “I want to believe that we have the kind of love that made you not care about what people say or do, even if they tell you you’re being foolish and crazy...”
He thought of Beth Lewis and what could be. He thought of Iolanthe, of Miranda, of people he could have or should have loved, but none of them had managed to get through his heart the way this woman did.
This woman had loved him the way none of them had loved him, but Daria was also the woman he had hurt the most.
“I want to stop being afraid like you. I want to stop pushing people away. I want my world to revolve around you, but more than that, I want to be like you, Daria Everest.”
Daria covered her trembling mouth at Nik’s last words. No one had ever said something like that about her. She didn’t think anyone would even want to say that. She was Daria Everest - the crazy, flirtatious, impulsive girl everyone loved to hate. And here was Nik, telling her he didn’t just love her, but he wanted to be like her.
Nik took a deep breath. Now or never, he thought. “I want to love you the way you loved me. Let me love you please, Daria, and I’ll wait until you can love me again.” He pulled his last surprise out from his other back pocket.
Daria couldn’t breathe.
It wasn’t a ring.
It was...something more.
It was the paper-cut tiara she had taught “Bella” to do, and as he offered it to her, she realized that he was embracing her fairytale with open arms. He was her frog, and he was asking her to be his princess.
Through the mask, she saw Nik close his eyes and oh God, she wanted to cry, she so badly wanted to cry when she saw him do it.
She knew, she knew that it was his way of saying he believed in their love the same way she did. With his eyes closed, he wouldn’t know she was gone before it was too late and the whole world had seen her turn him down.
Defeat crowded inside him, but he doggedly pushed it away even as the silence grew. He was going to give her as much time as she wanted, Nik told himself. He had hurt her a lot. It was only understandable she thought twice about trusting him again.