by Lindsey Hart
“Yeah,” Rhett managed to choke out past the fist-sized lump in his throat. “Me.” Didn’t we say something like this the first time I came in here? He actually wasn’t sure. His mind turned into a blank slate and he felt like he might actually puddle into a messy nervous sloppy pile all over the floor. Which Bella would, of course, have to clean up.
He did his best to keep himself upright, though the room was suddenly spinning, and his legs were begging to give out. He inhaled sharply and that little bit of oxygen did wonders for his spastic muscles and his churning stomach. A few of the black spots even cleared and his poor lungs got a bit of a break.
“Why are you here?” Bella stood slowly. She gripped the edge of the reception desk. She was protected from him by the huge counter. It just so happened that it came in handy to hold himself up, so Rhett put his elbows down and leaned hard.
Bella didn’t move. She didn’t blink. She seemed frozen in time.
God, she was beautiful.
So beautiful it hurt. Like… right in his pants. Other places too. Everywhere, actually. But especially right in his groin region.
Bella’s eyes narrowed the longer he stood there, his tongue too tied up to say any of the four million things racing through his head. And his heart. Yeah- it was corny, but it was true. He was a hot mess with her, but he was a shitty mess without her.
“Don’t tell me that you’re here for another tattoo, because I know for a fact no one has a cancellation today.”
Finally, his tongue unglued from the roof of his mouth. “I’m not here for a tattoo. I’m here for you.”
Those beautiful eyes widened a fraction more. “No. You can’t be here for me. I already told you that I don’t want you.”
“I know what you said,” Rhett admitted. “But I don’t think you mean it. Not the deep down, straight from your gut kind of meaning it.”
Bella’s lips parted for a fraction of time before she was able to recover and force out a rebuttal. “No. Of course I meant it.”
“Here’s the thing. I don’t think you do. I think you’re scared. I’m scared. We’re both scared. We were both doing it wrong. So wrong. I don’t know that we can do it right. It might be a disaster. It might turn into a huge shit-sandwich. I don’t know. Neither of us does. What I do know is that ever since I met you, I’ve had this feeling that I’ve finally got it right. Like, not in the way everyone thinks I should, but in the way that I’ve always needed to. I’ve never had that before. I never had it before you and then you said you didn’t want to give it a chance and I lost it. I want it back. I want you back. I want all of it back.”
“There- there are…” Bella’s throat bobbed as she swallowed hard, but even Rhett could tell that her tough façade was cracking.
“Yeah. I know all about the reasons we shouldn’t do this. But I also know that there is one really good reason to do it.”
“What’s- what’s that?”
Rhett’s heart nearly burst from the way Bella was looking at him, with her eyes all big and doe-like. His heart felt like it was ready to burst. Literally. His chest hurt so bad he nearly reached down to massage the spot.
“That I feel like this could be great. I mean, really, really good. Like if we gave it a chance, we might not even hate each other years from now kind of good. I have something when I’m with you. I feel- whole. I don’t know, Bella, I’m shit at this. I don’t explain my feelings. Half the time I don’t even think about them.”
“That would explain why you were with my sister for so long.”
Rhett swallowed hard. “Being with Sarah for so long showed me exactly what I don’t want. It showed me all the things I was doing wrong. I don’t feel any of that with you. I feel exactly the opposite. Like this might be a disaster, but it will be one epic, amazing, gorgeous kind of disaster. Like the kitchen after you’ve just baked a five-course meal that was so fucking good no one needs to eat for a month again. That kind of disaster. The kind that is totally, undoubtedly, amazingly, epically, emphatically, worth it.”
“That’s a lot of words for someone that says he can’t express himself.”
“I may have consulted a thesaurus right before I came in here. On my phone of course. Not the real paper kind.”
“I have no idea what you’re talking about.” A small smile broke through and Rhett felt like the sun had just come out after one hell of a rainstorm. Or a shit-storm. Back to that.
“I don’t either.” He leaned across the counter and Bella leaned forward a few inches. They were less than a foot away. “I seriously don’t either. Just give me a chance. I don’t care about the money. Our families will come around. I know my mom will and yours already doesn’t like you, so what’s the big deal?”
That ghost of a smile bloomed into a full-on radiant grin and Rhett’s chest just about imploded. His groin was also getting in on that imploding, or rather, exploding action.
“You’re ridiculous.”
“I know. I know I am. I’m not afraid to be ridiculous or look like an idiot if it means that you’ll have dinner with me. That you’ll keep having dinner with me. That you’ll give me a chance. I don’t want to change you. I don’t want you to change. My mom will love you because she’ll see that you just want me, not my money. Oddly enough, she never liked Sarah.”
“I like your mom more already,” Bella laughed.
“It sucks without you, Bel. We might not be like everyone else, but that’s okay. I’ve always been okay with that. I just want to be me, and I want the me with you. I don’t want you to give up your independence or your wit or who you are. I just want to make it more fun for you. I want to be there for you. To have your back. If you never want to be spoiled or take a dollar from me, that’s fine by me. We don’t have to do anything the traditional way. We can take our time and just enjoy it.”
Bella glanced behind her, at the place where all the private rooms had their doors closed. She lowered her voice and her eyes sparkled. “Well, I do like enjoying myself. With you. And by enjoying, I mean boning.”
“Who says boning anymore?”
She shrugged. “I do, I guess. I enjoyed that. A lot actually. I just- I don’t do dating. Guys are dicks. It’s never worked out. It just hurts in the end. It’s always an epic fail. I thought I’d just be saving us a lot of time and pain.”
“Did that work out? I mean, have you enjoyed going back to being single? Or at least not seeing me on the weekends?”
“No,” she admitted gruffly. “I guess I haven’t enjoyed that at all.”
“There you have it.” Rhett latched on to anything he could. “I rest my case. It’s better with me. Admit it. Just because all the other bullshit came to an end, doesn’t mean this has to. It’s more than just sex. Because every single time I was with you, it fixed that for me, I mean, the whole blue balls thing, but it didn’t fix anything going on in my head or that tightness in my chest that never leaves. All those other endings do not mean this won’t work out if we both try. We can be real, Bella. We can give it a chance and see where it goes. Everything in life hurts, but sometimes it’s worth it.”
“That sounds like a motivational poster again.”
“I can’t help it. I’m floundering here.”
He froze when Bella slowly walked out from behind the desk. She walked around the counter and towards him and didn’t stop until she was right in front of him. She eyed him up, hard.
“Just so you know, if you fuck this up badly, I have some guys here who wouldn’t mind kicking your ass.”
Rhett grinned. God, it felt good to take a chance. To be there with her, to have her so so close. To inhale her sweet scent. To feel the heat of her body pressing into him when she stepped even closer, to feel the delicate bones of her hand in his when he dared to reach out and grasp it.
“I’ll try really hard not to give them a reason.”
“Rick even said that if you hurt me, he’d carve that panther out of your thigh.”
“Jesus Christ.”
“Yeah. I know. I work with some real psychos.”
“I definitely won’t give him a reason to do that.”
Bella hesitated. “Do you promise?” The look in her eyes, a quarter uncertainty, a quarter fear, and probably half of whatever the feeling was inside his chest that was turning him all achy and squishy and soft, turned him even achier and squishier and softer.
“I promise.” There wasn’t anything else he could say. The rest they would just have to figure out as it came.
He wasn’t going to bail. He might have found Bella in the strangest most inopportune time, but maybe it was the strangest rightest time. He didn’t give a shit if rightest wasn’t a word. It described what he felt for Bella perfectly, so he was sticking with it.
When he bent his head and kissed her breathless, that was also the rightest thing he’d ever done in his life. He was definitely sticking with it just like he was sticking with her. And all the grammar experts and dictionary writers and the language police could just suck it.
And then Bella kissed him back, right there in the middle of the tattoo shop’s waiting area, and hell, he forgot all about language and made up words and everything else. Everything but her. It was always going to be her. It always was. He’d finally, finally figured it out.
EPILOGUE
Bella
The best thing about giving love a shot?
All of it.
One year. One whole year. One year she and Rhett had officially been together. They hadn’t killed each other. They hadn’t wound up hating each other. It was chaos, but it was the good kind. The kind that makes you fall more and more in love. Over and over again, with each passing day.
Bella would have never said she’d enjoy being in a relationship before. But surprisingly, she did enjoy calling herself Rhett’s girlfriend.
She never thought she’d enjoy calling herself his fiancée either, but the ring on her finger made her smile every single time she opened her eyes. It had been eight days and she still wasn’t used to it.
“You are looking at that thing again?” Rhett rolled over in bed beside her. He propped himself up on his elbow and stared down into her eyes. His sparkled. Even first thing in the morning, sheet creases across his face, sleep in the corners of his eyes, and dragon breath, he was still smoking hot. And cute. And adorable. And incredibly sexy.
“Yeah,” she admitted. “It’s so big it’s like a movie projector in here.” She pointed to the rainbows and light rays dancing across the white wall by their bed.
“Only when it’s sunny.”
“Did you really have to pick out a rock the size of a fist?”
“Yes. Of course.” Rhett grinned. “Is it too early to tell you it’s fake? Would you still marry me?”
Bella rolled her eyes. She reached out and caressed Rhett’s cheek. The ring really wasn’t that big. It was pretty though, in that old-fashioned cut with a large round diamond in the center surrounded by a circular cluster of tiny diamonds. On the grand scale of things, it was just average.
“Do you think your parents will actually come to the wedding if we invite them?”
“If? You don’t think I should?” Bella giggled. Her parents were never on her side about anything. Go figure, she found a rich, hot guy like her mom always wanted her to and they still weren’t happy for her. Okay, maybe that had more to do with Sarah than anything, though she’d since married her lover and gone on a second honeymoon with him. Good for her. Or good riddance. Bella wasn’t sure which she actually meant. “My family is always going to be my family. I guess I have to love them anyway.”
“Doesn’t mean we have to invite them to the wedding.” Rhett leaned in and judging from the glint in his eyes and his light tone, Bella knew he was kidding. Both of them were okay with having little contact with her parents, but that was just her life. Nothing had changed. She loved them, deep down, but she didn’t need to be close to do that.
“It’s a good thing we’re going to elope then. That way we won’t have to invite anyone.”
“Elope?” Rhett considered. “I could go for that.”
“Of course you could. It’s like zero planning. All we have to do is book it. We’ll take your mom of course. She’ll never forgive us otherwise.”
Rhett rolled over her and she let out a playful shriek. His granite arms came down on either side of her face as he shifted on top of her. His happy stick let her know just how happy it was as it ground into her stomach. What do you know, she was wet and ready in record time. Or maybe she was always wet and ready. Living with Rhett kind of made her that way.
She didn’t think she’d enjoy that either- the living part, not the sex, but she was surprised to find, she did. She’d found a job working at another tattoo shop and since a few of their artists left for greener pastures, she’d actually got a promotion. She was just starting her apprenticeship, but she already loved it. Apparently, she could draw- okay, so that might have been a talent she kept under wraps. But people liked her art. Who would have known? And guess what? Rhett was also considering getting his arms tattooed by her. So, that was bonus points for becoming a tattoo artist.
“You’re right. She wouldn’t forgive us.”
“Is it weird that you’re talking about your mom while you’re on top of me?”
Rhett choked. “You’re right. That’s enough to deflate even the most giant of boners.”
“I doubt it.” Bella wriggled, emphasizing her point. “I can feel that Mr. Happy is still really happy.”
“That he is. He’s always happy with you. All of me is. And my mother loves you.”
“There you go again. Talking about your mom.”
Rhett’s laugh bounced off the walls. “She’s happy that I’m happy. She adores you.”
“I know. She’s my second mom, but more like my real mom since she actually likes me and we get along great. She’s almost forgotten she has a son at all since I’m the daughter she never had and always pined for.”
Rhett ground his erection a little lower, into her thigh, and this time when Bella giggled, the sound was a little breathless. “Okay, that’s enough talking for now. About anything.”
“But I like to talk about eloping. It’s romantic. It gets me in the mood.”
Rhett trailed a finger along her thigh, up, up to the place where she was hot and ready and aching for him. “You don’t need any help with that.”
“You’re right. I guess,” she ceded. “But still. Hawaii? That’s nice. Or maybe Jamaica? Or- Europe. Scotland. We could get married in some old castle.”
“I like the sound of that. Any of it. As long as you’re mine.”
“I’m yours,” Bella breathed. “I never thought I’d actually like admitting it, but I’m yours. I’ve been yours since I found your sorry ass in that church basement. Since I saved you from marrying my sister.”
“I think I’d already saved myself. Or maybe she saved me.”
“Nope. It was me. I seem to remember hauling you out of there and what came next started all of this.”
“Okay, okay, you saved me. You saved me that day and every day after.” Rhett lowered his face so that his lips were inches from hers. Bella’s breath caught in her lungs. “Neither of us thought it was possible but look at us now. Here. We love each other. We live together and we haven’t killed each other. Although, I do have that room in the basement set up just for that one day you manage to piss me off.”
Bella’s breath rushed out of her lungs as Rhett’s lips teased over her own. “It’s so romantic when you talk about murder,” she said huskily. “Just don’t count on me not getting to you with a frying pan first.”
“What better way to go is there?” Rhett nipped at her lips again and Bella lost the ability to think. “Seriously though, I’m so thankful you gave this a shot. I’m so glad you took a chance on me. That you keep taking chances on me. That you’re kind and forgiving and that most of all, you’re you. I love your heart. I love your body. I love your
soul. It’s all so beautiful and I’m honored that you’ve chosen to share that with me.”
“That’s more romantic than your proposal was. I seem to recall you choking on your own tongue and just fumbling the ring into my hand.”
Rhett’s laugh was soft against her lips. “Yeah, well, maybe taking it on that hike wasn’t the best idea. I could have lost the damn thing. And then I was so nervous, I botched it totally.”
“That was romantic though,” Bella assured him softly and she meant it. They’d talked about getting married a few times. Rhett made it clear he wanted it to be her decision and when she wasn’t totally against the idea, he’d obviously taken the hint and went and bought her the ring. The proposal on the dusty trails they loved to hike on their days off wasn’t a complete surprise. “It was just right because it was you and I don’t need fancy things or fancy words. I just need you. I just want you.”
“You have me,” Rhett promised. He stared up into her eyes and the love there made her heart swell and her chest feel like it was going to burst. “For always. You have me.”
She closed her eyes and this time when Rhett kissed her, it wasn’t a brush of his lips. It wasn’t gentle. It was scalding and hot and she loved it. They’d both taken a chance on love and through hard work, a hell of a lot of compromises, so many happy moments and a few pissed off ones, it looked like it was the best decision she’d ever made.
Okay, hands down, it was the best decision she’d ever made.
For a girl who didn’t believe in happy ever after’s, she was pretty damn happy. Ever after remained to be seen, but she knew without a doubt that it would always be Rhett for her and she’d spend the rest of her life working her ass off through all the good and bad times, to find and create that happiness together.
The End
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