“No buts. I married you. I chose you…I knew that meant till the day I die. I told Klarissa the first day she appeared in front of me that I was never going to marry her. That I would never love her. She dared to hope somehow I’d see the light and fall. However, I am a man of my word. Always have been.”
“A gangster with sophistication and morals.”
“If I knew you would keep repeating that I would have tried to make it catchier.” I yawned.
She snickered. “What is your word to me?”
She wasn’t serious.
Rising off the chair, I walked over to her side of the bed. She stared up at me and I down at her until I reached down and lifted her up, lying down on my back with her resting on top of my chest.
“When I put that ring on your finger I believe my exact words were: I bind my life to yours, in good times and in bad, in sickness and in health. It is a symbol of my eternal love, my everlasting friendship, and the promise of all my tomorrows. An outward reminder of our inner unity. I forsake all others, I chose you, until death do us part.”
She held her hand up for us both to look at. “It doesn’t count if there is a lie in it.”
“What lie?”
“When you say my eternal love and my everlasting friendship…when did you fall in love with me? And when did we become friends?”
Of all the women in the world… Sighing, I closed my eyes. “Ivy…no one is taking your spot at my side. I am not abandoning you, so for the love of God, shut up and let me sleep.”
IVY
He fell asleep just like that, with his arms wrapped around me.
“Who says you aren’t romantic?” I whispered softly.
Closing my eyes…and there was the familiar feeling in my chest. One that I hadn’t felt in a very long time.
Rolling over in his arms, I stared up at him. He looked so gentle when he slept. With those long eyelashes and his hair, a slight mess. Like he had not a care in the world. Even though his heart was right under my hands. Putting my head on it, I closed my eyes. He didn’t realize how scary it was…knowing that your lifeline was attached to one person and that person had no reservations in getting rid of people he found no use for.
But I believed him.
Or at the very least I wanted to believe him.
There was no other option but doubt and that led to pain and I was tired of pain.
SIXTEEN
“They slipped briskly into an intimacy from which they never recovered.”
~ F. Scott Fitzgerald
ETHAN
BEEP.
BEEP.
BEEP.
“Make it stop,” she whispered, but since she was on top of me her lip brushed against my skin with each word. That and the feeling of her naked body pressed on mine didn’t really help my cock, which grew harder every time she shifted.
BEEP.
“Ahh,” she whined and then pouted, lifting her head and resting her chin on my chest. “Your phone.”
“You’ve pinned me down,” I told her and then glanced at the other side of the bed where my phone was.