AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“Yes. But not because we were afraid of you.” I slid my fingers through his hair again and his eyelids closed. “We already knew that you didn’t kill Blaine, even if we didn’t know the why behind the lie. But Maddie wanted me to be able to tell you about Penny without you showing up and finding out about her on your own. She was afraid you’d show up, see Penny, and get angry.”
“I would have.” He admitted, “I appreciate you telling me. Even though I know it wasn’t easy on you to do so. And I know I didn’t make it easy on you accusing you of having another man either.”
I smirked and rolled my eyes, “That’s an understatement.”
“I won’t ever apologize for being protective of you.” He replied without remorse. “I’ve never waivered in my commitment to you and I’ve never pretended to be anything but obsessed with you.”
I rolled over onto my side and turned in the bed, so we were face to face but upside down of each other. “I wouldn’t feel as passionately about you if you didn’t make me feel so important to you.” I admitted. “We just have to be careful with Penny though, I don’t want her to be afraid of what you might do to someone else if you go all alpha around her. I want her to get to know you, to learn your heart before she sees the strong and dominant side of you.”
“I want that too, baby. Don’t worry, I’ll be on my best behavior.”
“Good boy.” I joked as he grinned and rolled onto his stomach to stretch.
The tattoo scene on his back that I’d been admiring earlier came back into view and I leaned up onto my elbow to look at it closer, before climbing up onto my knees to get an even better look at the whole thing.
The woman standing on the beach had her arms out, and her head tilted back like she was singing a song towards the sea. She wore a long flowing gown with a slit up the side that revealed a long bare leg underneath. She was barefoot and had a crown of flowers twisted into her long hair. I’d be lying if I said she didn’t look suspiciously like me.
Out in the middle of the waves was a man, with the likeness of Fox with his long dark hair and smoldering eyes. He was surrounded by angry waves but where he stood the water was calm and peaceful, like the storm that brewed behind him couldn’t touch him. The sky was dark, and lightning streaked across the sky mixed with the rain. On one side of the cliffs a motorcycle was parked at the top, with a checkered picnic blanket laid out next to it, overlooking the scene below.
“Tell me about this.” I whispered, trying to make sense of it.
He looked over his shoulder at me, but I turned his head back down so the skin of his back was flat and uninterrupted. There were so many details to it that my eyes jumped from piece to piece, finding likeness to things that had occurred in our life.
“What do you think it is?” He asked.
“Us.”
“Correct.” He slid his arms up underneath the pillow he was laying on and let me continue to stare. “Do you remember what you told me that day when I asked you to tell me something important?”
“The day you told me you loved me and wanted a family?” I whispered and traced my fingers over the other edge of the cliffs over his right shoulder. On top was a grassy knoll with a picnic table and we sat on top of it. Me with my legs crossed under me and him leaned back with his legs stretched out. Take-out wrappers laid on the table around us. We were staring at each other with smiles on our faces and flashbacks burned in my brain of that afternoon.
“You told me you wanted to matter to someone someday.” He said quietly, “You didn’t want to die without impacting someone so deeply that they could look back on the moment they met you and remember it as the moment their life was changed for the better.”
“Fox.” I whispered in awe.
“You changed my life, D.” He rolled over and sat up until his face was right in front of mine, “The moment you looked at me across your kitchen table the first night that Blaine brought me over after a job, my life was changed.” He reached up and cradled the side of my face with his hand as he swallowed. “Without you, I never would have felt what it meant to love someone more than myself. I never felt anything towards anyone else until your perfect innocent face looked up from your textbooks when I walked in and then it was like this bolt of electricity shot right out of your eyes, directly into my soul. And I was never the same.” He leaned forward and pressed his lips to mine as tears spilled over my cheeks. “When Blaine died, I told you to hold onto me and I’d hold you down and keep you afloat at the same time. I told you to grab onto me and let me hold you steady while the world swirled and tormented around us, I’d be your anchor. But I was wrong, because it was you that kept me steady and sane when I had nothing else to focus on.” He cursed and laid his forehead against mine. “When I laid in my bunk in prison, listening to the tormenting screams and cries going on all around, I imagined you, like a goddess on the shore, drawing me in and grounding me as the ocean tried to take me under. Without you and your love burning deep inside of me, I never would have survived inside that place.”
I clawed at him and pulled myself into his lap to feed my desperate need to feel him wrap around me. He held me as I cried and clung to him, “I missed you so much. I laid in bed alone at night with so much fear and heartbreak in my soul and I longed for you. I ached for you, even though my brain told me to give it up, that we were never going to get our happily ever after.”
“But we did.” He said against my lips. “Look at us now, baby. We’re here. Together.” He put my hand over my heart, “And even without knowing what the other one was doing we stayed true to each other. That above all else should prove to you that there isn’t anyone else out there for us. If not that, then our miracle daughter, who was conceived at exactly the right moment to link us together forever, proves we’re exactly where we’re supposed to be.”
“I love you so much,” I cried and buried my face in his neck as my love for him soared even higher. “When did you get it done?” I asked after a long time of breathing him in and letting his scent soothe me.
“As soon as I got out of prison.”
“But you didn’t know if you’d ever see me again. Why would you dedicate your entire back to us?”
“I dedicated my entire life to you, Delilah.” He affirmed, “My back was just the beginning of showing my dedication to you and us.”
I shook my head and laid it back down in his neck as he laid down and pulled the blankets up over us. “I want our happily ever after, Fox.” I whispered, “I want us and Penny and another baby or two. I want Maddie to be close to us all and I want us to just be happy and safe.”
“We’ll have it. I promise you.” He ran his hand up my back in slow relaxing strokes and I sighed into his neck. “I love you, Delilah, with every single part of me.”
Chapter 26 – Fox
Past
Thescreamsweretheworst.
