I’d Give Up The World For You - Chapter 213

The villain wasn’t even mentioned by name for most of the story but when he was Daisy was appalled to discover that his appearance wasn’t the only thing the author had stolen. She had used his last name was well.

How rude! What on earth was Juliet Gallagher’s problem?!

Her villain’s name was Rukelion Blaze and he had the exact same physical appearance as Leo from his hair to his scars. They were all over his arms though the worst of them were on his back. She wouldn’t have known about that part unless she had seen him shirtless.

The thought rankled. Daisy had already considered that they might have dated before only to have things end badly but dismissed it. Had she been wrong?

He still had her number too. Why would he have the phone number of the person he seemed to hate most if they hadn’t been close at one point? She would have thought Juliet was the horrible roommate if not for the fact that the book had been written years ago. Whatever went down between them had to have happened further back in time.

As Daisy continued reading, she realized that Rukelion Blaze wasn’t even that well-written a character. He was a cliché two-dimensional villain who didn’t care about anything but power and destruction.

He was seriously overpowered too. The only reason the heroes were able to defeat him was because he was also severely unhinged.

He literally had one line of backstory about losing his kingdom and his family, leading him down a path of revenge. Not bad as far as motivations go if the explanation wasn’t so weak. Why would this author base such a lame character on Leo?

It was horrible of her. Not only had she stolen his name and appearance, she used his family’s murders against him too. Had she put a real person she knew into her story because she couldn’t come up with any other ideas or simply because she despised him?

She had literally introduced a crazy, evil character based on a real person solely to kill him off at the end of the book. She should have lost a lot more than half of her earnings.

Leo said all he wanted was to live the rest of his life in peace. Implying he wanted Juliet to leave him alone. If she knew about his scars…and his family…he must have really trusted her at one point.

This didn’t make sense. How could he possibly turn around and fall in love with Daisy at first sight, clinging to her desperately, after experiencing a romantic betrayal like that? She had to be missing something here.

She returned the book to the library as soon as she was done with it but she had more questions now than she had before she read it. Questions that weren’t likely to ever be answered.

The whole situation bothered her more than she was willing to admit. She already knew she had been extra protective of Leo since he had his allergic reaction and subsequent panic attack but this seemed like more than protectiveness. If she had to put a label on what she was feeling, she was probably jealous.

How stupid could she get? She had boyfriends before, though none had ever truly broken her heart. Maybe that was what affected her most. Leo despised Juliet and for him to hate her that much he must have truly loved her once.

Hate and love were both strong emotions. For him to hate her this much now…

Was this the fate that awaited Daisy? He loved her now but that could change any time. Someday he might hate her too, though she doubted it would be as much since she hadn’t slandered him for the whole world to see. That was a worse offense than she could ever commit.

She didn’t want to think about him coming to hate her. She would much rather him be indifferent the way everyone else had ever been. But even that thought was terribly painful.

She didn’t want that to happen either. If she was being perfectly honest with herself, she wanted Leo to continue to love her.

Why would she want that if she didn’t have some sort of feelings for him too? That realization terrified her. She hadn’t wanted to care about him in the first place because he was so complicated but she did and look where it landed her!

Daisy sighed and looked up at the ceiling in dismay. What was she supposed to do now? Give into the madness and pray it didn’t backfire horribly on her to the point that she never recovered?

She hadn’t wanted to fall in love. Ever. Especially after relying on herself for so long. She had thought she would be able to do that for the rest of her life without getting attached and risking getting hurt but her efforts had been in vain from the moment she asked Leo out. It had all been downhill from there.

“What do I do?” she whispered to no one.

What she was feeling probably wasn’t love. She didn’t know Leo well enough for that. But she undeniably liked him and that nearly paralyzed her with fear.

When he came home from school he radiated exhaustion until he flopped down on the couch next to her and held her against his chest like she was a teddy bear. “You had a rough day too, huh?”

“You could say that.”

“I’m sorry. Unfortunately, I have some homework to do or I’d do something with you to help perk both of us up. We should definitely go somewhere fun on Saturday. I think we need it. How does hiking sound? It might tire us out but at least the views will be pretty.”

Daisy could definitely use some nature to help her clear her head. Hocking Hills was close enough to make a day trip out of it and they had some gorgeous waterfalls. He always knew what she needed to feel better, didn’t he?

She smiled tiredly at him. “Sounds good to me.”

Leo held her for a few more minutes before kissing her and letting her go. He pulled out the cheap laptop he had bought specifically for school and got to work next to her. She put in her earbuds and decided to watch YouTube on her phone while leaning against him.

He didn’t seem to mind, though it made it slightly more difficult for him to type. If anything, he seemed less weary than before. Like having her touch him was recharging his batteries.

It wasn’t having quite the same effect on her. Her heart was hammering against her ribs because of the conclusion she had come to earlier.

Daisy couldn’t deny that his touch and presence were comforting most of the time (you know, when he wasn’t freaking out about something or other) but right now she was rather on edge. She didn’t want to like him!

Liking him was incredibly dangerous. She didn’t know nearly enough about him for that. He had been living with her for months and he was still a mystery. She didn’t understand him at all beyond knowing that he was an extremely troubled person who happened to be a total sweetheart when he liked you.

She made him happy—that much was undeniable—but that wasn’t enough to combat everything else going on in his head. That was why she made him go to therapy.

When or if he managed to get his symptoms under control would he decide that he didn’t need her anymore? Or would it allow him to let her in properly so they could have a real relationship?

At this point Daisy couldn’t deny that was what she wanted anymore. Deep, deep down she never wanted Leo to leave. He was good company when he wasn’t moping and she hadn’t had that in years. Having someone to do things with who had similar interests to her was a lot of fun.

There was also the fact that he was incredibly doting. She was already becoming spoiled.

Despite how busy Leo was he still helped out around the house, complimented her whenever he found an opening, and was as affectionate as she would let him be. She had the feeling he would do much more if he wasn’t afraid of rocking the boat.

If not for the PTSD, she couldn’t have asked for a better man to fall into her lap. But that was a pretty big problem.

His nightmares occasionally woke her up because he was trembling, sweating, and holding her so tightly she almost couldn’t breathe. He often cried without warning and had weird tics where he would dig his fingernails so tightly into his hands or arms that he would bleed.

Then there was the fact that he was so secretive about everything. If Daisy was in his shoes she probably wouldn’t want to talk about it either—the guy had experienced way too much death in his relatively short life—but she could never tell what he was really thinking as a result.. It was stressful.