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“Don’t you remember when I found her?” he asks, breaking me out of my reverie.
A memory resurfaces and I gasp. Aris was the one who took me to the competition and stayed in the stands, cheering me on and celebrating my win alongside me. “I do,” I whisper. “We found her on the side of the road with a for sale sign. You stopped right there and then and called the owner. I forgot about that! That’s why you named her after my song?”
He affectionately caresses the bike like it's his lover, running his palm up and down the gas tank as he confesses, “I knew yourroutine would be a winner even if you didn’t. You may have disliked the song chosen by your coach, but you nailed it every time. I knew with enough love and attention; she’d soar just like you did.”
“You always were my biggest fan, Aris.”
“You talk like that’s in the past tense, Ber. Not was, I am your biggest fan.”
“Jesus. Fuck,” I swear, wiping the tears from my cheeks. Turning my back on him, I take a second to compose myself. Once I have my emotions back on the shelf in my brain, I spin back around on my feet and take a running leap at him. His arms spread wide and he takes a step back with his left foot to cushion the blow of my weight once it hits him. And I do hit him, like a battering ram. My legs wrap around his waist and my arms swaddle his shoulders. I bury my face in his neck and breathe him in. “I missed you.”
“I missed you too. Don’t ever leave me again, Berlynn. I don’t think I’d survive it.”
CHAPTER
SIXTEEN
ARIS
She doesn’t verbally answerme, instead she shakes her head in denial while it’s still nestled in my neck. I get a feeling of completeness with her in my arms, a sensation of being home for the first time since she was all but ripped away from me.
The inherent desire to feel her lips on mine consumes me. With my upper hand, I lift up and comb it through her hair. With a gentle tug on her roots, I haul her head back and lean forward, capturing her lips with mine. I don’t give her a chance to resist, I reveal all of my pent up emotions in the kiss. With it, I tell her that I love her. That she’s everything to me. I confess that I can’t live without her. I show her that she’s my soul mate and prove to her that I’m hers.
When our lungs become oxygen deprived, I wrench my lips free from hers, even if that’s the last thing I want to do and lean forward to touch our foreheads together. “Do you get it now?”
“Yeah,” she remarks, licking her bottom lip as if she’s savoring our combined taste. “I get it, Aris.”
“Good. That’s good,” I convey, my heart pounding to its own staccato beat in my chest. “I won’t let you go so easily next time, Berlynn. There’s no escape for you. You’re mine and I’m yours. We need each other for survival. You are the key to my lock.”
“I was always afraid you’d forget me, Aris. That eventually, I’d be nothing but a blip on the radar from your glory days. I thought you’d look back on our friendship fondly but also with a heavy heart. I believed that you’d move on without me, settle down, and create your own family without me and Berk included. The longer the days went by without me being okay enough to bring you back into my life, the more I thought I’d lost you… forever. I was scared to invite you back in because things felt too dangerous, too unsettled. I didn’t want to put you or your family through any of this. It wasn’t,it isn’t, fair to any of you.”
“Through thick and thin. Through the good times and the bad times, I want to be there for you, Berlynn. For both of you. You always said I was your rock, but you?” I stop and sigh. “You’ve always been my steady, my anchor. Without you, I feel like I’ve been lost at sea without a way to save myself. While we’ve been apart, I’ve been drifting. You are the preserver of my life, Ber. I don’t just want you; Ineedyou.”
“I need you too, Aris,” she whispers. “Did you mean what you said? That I’m yours?”
“Yes,” I hiss out. “You may not have been aware of it, but you have always been mine,” I admit. “We both needed some time to grow and find ourselves, fight our demons, but that time has concluded. From this point moving forward, we fight those monsters together. Hell, I’d fight the devil himself to keep you at my side. You’re my girl, my life. Mine to protect and safeguard. You’re my body, heart, and soul.”
“Prove it,” she challenges, heat blazing in her irises.
“How? Give me the words, Berlynn. Tell me how to prove it to you, baby girl.”
“Make love to me. Show me with your body, let me feel your heart as our souls mesh together. Love me, Aris.”
“Every day for the rest of our lives, Berlynn. Every single goddamn day,” I say as I tighten my hold on her and carry her over the threshold of the house. Lucky for me, the garage has an entrance leading inside. My legs pick up their stride as I get closer to the staircase while she nibbles on my neck. My dick grows uncomfortably hard beneath my slacks as thoughts of what I want to do with her dance through my mind. For half of my life I’ve longed to lay her on my bed and have my sinful way with her. I get irked when Jenning’s face floats through my brain. He was her college boyfriend and seeing as I was considered as one of her best friends, I got the unwanted pleasure of hearing how he stole her virginity.
It was the first time I ever contemplated murder.
I quickly dash those memories to the wayside because there’s no room for anyone else between us. It wasn’t like I was a choir boy during my teens and early twenties. He may have stolen what was meant to be mine, but I have the one thing he never will—her future. Whereas I won’t be her first, I can guarandamntee you I’ll be her last and that’s enough for me, it somewhat pacifies the inner beast inside that’s trying to claw his way free from my chest cavity.
When we make it to my bedroom, I close the door behind us with the heel of my foot never once shifting her position in my arms. This feels like a dream, one I’m not willing to test by releasingmy grip on her. The door slams harder than I intended for it to, but I’m so damn anxious to feel her flesh touching mine that I’m having a difficult time concentrating, controlling myself and my actions.
Still keeping her where she is, wrapped in my embrace, I kick off my shoes and continue along the path that’ll lead me to paradise—my bed. Finally, understanding that this can’t go any further until I unlatch my arms, I slide her down my body, nipping the lobe of her ear as she descends. “Before we go any further, I need to tell you something.”
“What’s that?” she asks, her breath choppy and her voice husky.
“I love you, Berlynn. I’ve loved you since the first day you kissed my knee when I scraped it when we were three, and I loved you the day I had to let you go to keep you safe. I love you now, and I’ll love you until I draw my last breath.”
“I love you too, Aris. I’ve loved you since the day you picked me up and dusted me off when I fell chasing you during our game of hide and seek. I loved you the day I watched you walk away to keep you from drowning in my family’s crap. I don’t think there will be a day when I don’t love you. Through everything I’ve suffered, you’ve been the one person I count on. Whether you’re cheering me on from the sidelines or if you’re pushing me through the darkness from the shadows. I know you’re there whether I can see you or not. I’ll love you until I close my eyes for the final time. I’m sorry, so sorry that I stayed away for as long as I did. But we’re together now, and nothing will ever make me run away again. Even if I think it’s for your own good.”
