I tugged on her ankle, brought her feet to the floor and edged her toward me so I was between her thighs, my hands fencing her lower back. “You know how you’ve got no friends?”
She jabbed me in the shoulder with a fist and I fake winced. “I have friends.”
“Well you were mine from the get to. Before I realized I wanted you in other ways. I trust you now and I trusted you then like I trust no one.”
Sadness magnified in her eyes. “I thought for the longest time you didn’t.”
“I lost my head—fell apart at the expense of you.”
Fingers trailed down my neck, my collarbone and chest. “If we could slow it down this time, pull it right back to basics, I want to try again. I trust my gut, Julian. I don’t believe I’m wrong about you—about us. Running away from you… it gets me nowhere.”
“Angel, there’s nowhere left to run. You know I’ll find you. Because right when my brain’s convinced itself I’m there, and the world couldn’t get any sweeter with you in it, I look at you and I love you more.”
The restless boredom in her absence, and perpetual angry state, was a propensity that left an itchy burn. I’d spent my days cranky, irritated, and hankering a cure-all. Well, there was no cure-all. No blissful vacancy to be filled. There were bumps in the road—mountains in our case—but we’d get over them, go around them. Detonate and smash them down. Together.
“Football was my life, my first love. But I’m not chained to it, and the price for that freedom was you. I’m sorry, Angel, for not listening to you. Sorry I was the reason you made such a drastic decision and then turned my back on helping you through it. You’re the woman, this is your body. You’re in control.”
Angel narrowed one eye, pinched her bottom lip between her teeth. “Thought my body was yours?”
“It’s yours first. If you let me prove it, I’ll never abandon you again. We’ll fight, argue, and we’re gonna need to work on your sense of humor.”
Startled, Angel’s fingers slewed to a stop, her mouth snapping open. “Oh, is it? How so?”
“We’ll have to get you one.”
“You’re still an asshole then.”
“Some things never change. I’ve been turning out of my mind thinking about you being here. Is it for real?” The discussions were done—over. I wasn’t in for the repeat. We were or weren’t, and I would only settle for one of those possibilities.
Angel shrugged one shoulder, looked at me with a lilting smile hinged with promise. If I thought I didn’t deserve her before… “I guess it’s as real as we make it. Because I know this guy, see, and he hates giving up. I don’t think he’d let me just walk out of here.”
My hands pushed under her t-shirt, a vehement need to get more of her in my physical possession. “He wouldn’t let you walk out of here. There’s lost time to make up for, and I love you too damn much not to start now.” I brought her lips to within an inch of mine with the tips of my fingers under her chin. The late-night street noise ripped away into a blaring silence just long enough for me to stare at my future and visualize our life without the disruptions. And this time I was holding onto it with both hands.
Losing Seven (Falling for Seven Book 2) Page 29
