She licks her lips, not pushing me away. “Why?” Her voice is so low, I know this is going to be my only shot.
“Because I’m not a stupid kid anymore.” I want to kiss her so badly, but she needs to know, needs to understand how I can’t live life without her. “Because I know what my life is without you.” I take a deep inhale, not willing to see it, not willing to live it. “And I know what my life is with you.” The strength she had to hold back the tears is a losing battle, and just like me, she lets go of a single tear, except I’m here to brush away her tear. “And clear as day, I would pick you every time.” I lick my lips, my mouth going so dry I don’t know how I continue, but I do, with my heart beating so fast in my chest it’s putting additional pressure on my heart. “I fucked up, a colossal fuckup.” I try to smile, but the pain in my chest from when I lost her comes front and center again. “The way we came together again is not ideal.” I smirk for a second. “But I have to think we would have crossed paths again.” The agony of it not happening is too much to bear. “I have to believe this because there is no one for me but you.” I trail off.
“You had Helena.” She puts her hand on my wrist that is still holding her face.
“I did and I wish that I hadn’t.” I shake my head. “I can see now that what I felt for her was nothing.” My voice quivers. “I didn’t give her me.” I wipe another tear away from her cheek. “I didn’t give her parts of me.” Her lips quiver at the same time mine do. “Because that part of me was always yours.” I stare into her eyes. “Tell me you hear me, Sofia.” I put my forehead to hers. “Tell me what you feel for me isn’t anything. As much as I can’t and don’t want to, I’ll let you be. I’ll love you from afar. I’ll live my life knowing I will never love anyone but you.” I wait a second before the plea comes out. “Tell me.”
“I’m afraid,” she finally admits. “I’m so afraid.”
“I failed you once, Sofia, by not being what you needed. By not being the man who you deserved. You have to know. You have to know that I would never do that again. It kills me inside knowing I was the man who was supposed to protect you. I was the man who was supposed to do everything to make sure you felt no pain, but I was, in fact, the one who inflicted the pain on you.” My hand shakes now as I hold her face.
“Don’t hurt me again,” she pleads, the words slicing through my heart one word at a time.
“I promise you; I’ll spend the rest of my life making up for it.” She stares into my eyes this time. The turmoil that we both feel is etched on our faces.
I wait for her to say something, anything, waiting as if my life sentence is being delivered. “I hear you,” she says. I don’t let her say another word, I lower my lips to hers, the taste of our tears on our lips as I kiss her like it’s the first time all over again. My tongue slides into her mouth as I wrap my arm around her waist, while the other one gets buried in her hair. She moves her head to one side and I pick her up. Her arms wrap around my neck at the same time her legs wrap around my hips.
I walk over to the stairs going to her bedroom. Every single light is off in the house, but I make it to her bedroom like I’ve been in this house a million times before. Once I walk into her room, she peels herself out of my arms, her hand going to my cheek. “I love you.” The words come out breathlessly. “I fought it,” she admits, and I hate that I can’t see her eyes. “Said it would never happen. I was wrong.” She kisses my neck, her hand squeezing my T-shirt in her fingers, pulling it up and over my head. “I didn’t think this would ever happen again,” she says, looking down. “I wished for it for so long that I thought it would never happen.”
“It was always meant to be,” I assure her as she opens the sash of her robe. Slipping it over her shoulders and down to her feet, she stands in front of me wearing a white camisole with matching panties.
She walks beside me, slipping her hand in mine, and she kisses my shoulder and pulls me with her to the bed. “It was always meant to be you,” she declares to me, sitting on the bed, pulling my arm down so I sit next to her. Her hands go to my face. “It was always you.” My heart soars in my chest. “It’s always going to be you.”
“You bet your ass it will be,” I vow, right before I claim her mouth. Wrapping my arm around her waist, I lower her back to the bed. There in the middle of her darkened room, I make love to her.
I slide into her at the same time she arches her back off the bed. “I love you,” I say as my forehead rests on hers.
Her hands come up to hold my face as she pants. “I love you,” she says, my tongue sliding back into her mouth as I try not to pound into her. “Harder.” She lets go of my lips and I slam into her. “Yes,” she whispers, wrapping her legs and arms around me. My face buried in her neck, I slam into her over and over again. She thrusts her hips up to meet mine and squeezes my cock so hard I don’t move in her. “Matthew.” My name is on her lips, as she jumps over the ledge, and I’m not far behind her with her name on my lips as well. I collapse on top of her, her limbs going weak around me, falling to the side.
“Do you want to take a shower with me?” I kiss her neck, pulling her closer and closer to me.
“Okay,” she agrees and then wraps herself around me again. I walk to the bathroom, turning on the bathroom light.
I finally see her face and notice her eyes are red. “Why were you crying?”
“Who says I was crying?” she huffs as I place her ass on the counter before turning and starting the shower. She turns to look at herself in the mirror and then gasps. “I was feeling sorry for myself.” She gets down and tries to fix her hair.
“You wouldn’t have had to feel sorry for yourself if you would have answered my texts or phone calls,” I tell her, bending to kiss her neck.
She cocks her head to the side. “I wouldn’t have had to feel sorry for myself if you just—” I don’t even wait for her to say anything. I just press my lips to hers. “Yeah, that’s what I thought,” she says once I let go of her lips.
“You going to re-meet my family?” I ask, bending and kissing her neck.
“Yes,” she says breathlessly, looking up at me. “I think I have to. My parents are coming down with my grandparents.”
“This would be a perfect time to ask your father for your hand in marriage,” I suggest, watching her face as she glares at me.
“That would be the opposite of a perfect time to ask for anything,” she declares and pushes me away from her.
I can’t help but laugh. “Well, my parents are coming into town tomorrow morning so I said we would meet them for lunch.” Her mouth opens and then closes. “They can come here, or we can go to my house.”
“I don’t…” she says, and I put up my hand.
“She never lived in my house,” I assure her. “But it’s on the market, and from what my mom said, it looks like it’s sold.”
“You’re selling your house?” she asks, shocked.
“I’m selling my house. We’re moving in with each other,” I inform her, “and we aren’t getting a fucking Ring camera.”
She laughs at the last part. “We’re moving in with each other?”
“Yes.” I nod my head.
“You could just move in here,” she says, and I fold my arms over my chest.
“Who bought this house?” I ask, knowing full well who bought the house. She doesn’t say anything. “Exactly, so we are going to be looking for a house. I’m going to buy said house, and then we are moving in with each other.” Her eyebrows go up. “And then we are going to get married and have babies.”
“Why can’t we both buy the house?” she asks, and I roll my eyes and then laugh.
“Because I take care of you from this point on.” Her eyes go into slits. “Whatever you need, I’m going to be the one taking care of you.”