by Tara Hart
I don’t immediately understand what’s happening. One minute she’s threatening to take my business, my money, Savannah, and now she expects me to believe it’s over. I feel like I need to pinch myself, so I do. It hurts, but Selina’s still standing in front of me, the same forlorn expression on her face. If she had a tail it would be low between her legs.
“This is the right thing for us, Jared.” She nods her head. “I need to move on and so do you.”
My mouth falls open, I’m genuinely speechless.
She reaches forward, squeezing my arm gently before turning around and walking in the opposite direction of our house—my house.
Once again, Selina took my breath away. She has always been a woman full of surprises and this is the best one yet.
This is a victory—my victory.
I watch as Selina disappears from my line of vision and from my life.
She’s gone forever.
She’s gone for good.
Chapter 24
I bang on the glass door so hard it threatens to shatter at any moment. The need to see her is too great to overcome, the intense desire coursing through my veins.
She pulls back the drapes, sets her gaze on my face and then unlatches the lock.
I step inside the gallery. It’s dark inside, an orange glow filters through from the back room, presumably where Savannah had been before I started pounding on the door like a crazy person.
She looks at me, her lips parted, her eyes wide. Her hair is piled messily on top of her head and she’s wearing a worn plaid shirt, the top buttons gaping open.
I smile warmly. She looks so goddamn perfect.
“What is it, Jared?” She crosses her arms over her chest, standing with her back against the frosted glass door.
I step forward, wrapping my hands around her middle, drawing her body close to mine.
Her eyes are full of awareness as her breath hitches in the back of her throat. She looks at me from beneath a fan of dark lashes. “What are you doing?” she whispers.
“It’s over.” I dip my head and kiss her lips gently.
The palm of my hand comes to cup the side of her face. She leans into my touch, her eyes hovering closed as she slowly inhales.
“Selina’s gone,” she says simply.
I nod my head. She already knows. Of course, she knows, despite everything Selina would never leave without telling Savannah first.
I don’t quite know how to gauge her mood. Is she upset that her sister’s gone? Is she relieved?
“I want to spend this moment with you,” I say quietly. “I want to feel free, but I can only do that with you by my side.”
It takes her a moment, but eventually, she smiles.
She wraps a hand around my neck and draws me in close, kissing my lips slowly, seductively. “That is what freedom tastes like,” she says.
She takes the breath from my lungs hostage. Fuck Savannah’s perfect.
“I’m sorry,” she whispers against my lips.
I pull back far enough to see the regretful expression on her face.
“Why are you sorry?”
She presses her eyes closed. “I’m sorry that I tricked you into loving me.”
I shake my head. “You didn’t trick me.”
“But you did…” she stops talking, afraid to finish the thought. “Fall in love?” Her words are barely a whisper.
I smile because she’s so unsure of herself. She doesn’t know her own power. She doesn’t realize that I’m so undeniably in love with her and she holds my heart hostage—has held my heart hostage—for the longest time. From the very first moment I saw her, I knew she was special. I fell for her fast, but fell in love with her slowly. With each day that passed by, she was ingraining my brain with this deep, unrequited love that I craved.
“I love you, Savvy,” I say before I can stop myself. “And I’m not going to hide it any longer.”
She looks up at my face, her expression soft. She loves me too, I can see it now as clear as day.
I take her hand in mine, bringing it to my lips and kissing her palm tenderly. “When I walk in a room, you’re the one I’m searching for. You’re the only person I want to see staring back at me.”
Biting the corner of her lip, she attempts to suppress a smile that wins in the end.
“We’re really going to do this?” she questions, the balls of her cheeks turning a deep shade of pink.
I nod my head excitedly. My heart is hammering in my chest. “We are.”
She pauses, the words teetering on the edge of her tongue. “I belong to me, Jared. No one else,” she says, her expression serious. “I’m my own person.”
I nod my head as I smile at her. “Of course.”
She’s so independent and it drives me wild. I love that she knows who she is. A woman in charge is so fucking sexy.
“And you,” she starts, her hands coming to grasp the collar of my shirt. “You belong to me. That’s not negotiable.”
Her eyes sparkle as she looks at me. I have never wanted to belong to someone so much in my life.
I signal the cross over my chest as I smile wide. “I’m all yours.”
The End.
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R is for Richer
They painted me to be the bitch, the villain, the money digging whore waiting to get my clutches on my husband's fortune, but they got it all wrong.
You see, money wasn’t my motivator. It was love.
I was in love with a man that I could never be with.
That was how our story started and how I feared it would end.
Yes, I used my sister.
Yes, I cheated on Jared.
But it wasn’t for nothing.
I was in love and I wanted to be set free.
I didn’t do it for me.
I did it to be with him.
Every villain has their story.
The question is, do you want to hear mine?
