Total pages in book: 48
Estimated words: 45414 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 227(@200wpm)___ 182(@250wpm)___ 151(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 45414 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 227(@200wpm)___ 182(@250wpm)___ 151(@300wpm)
I reach up and press on the back of his hand, pushing his palm into my cheek, feeling the tingles of the moment dance up and down my skin. Big parts of me want to rail against his declaration, calling him a liar, telling him there’s no way he can possibly mean what he’s saying.
But when I look into his glinting azure eyes, I read the truth there.
He means it. He really freaking means it.
“Belong?” I ask, hardly able to force the words out past my rising emotion.
“Yes,” he snarls. “As in… I fucking own you now. Everything you are, everything you’re going to become, I own it. And you own me. We belong to each other. For the rest of our lives, we’re going to be fused together. I told you this would sound crazy, but I can’t hold it back anymore.”
He breaks off with a chuckle, shaking his head, and I feel a smile spreading with heavenly heat across my face, making my cheeks tingle.
“I say anymore like it’s been weeks, but it’s only been hours. How are you doing this to me, Zoey?”
“I was about to ask you the same thing.” Pushing past the shyness that tries to stomp down on the moment, I reach up and place my hands on his shoulders, squeezing tightly. “Everything you’ve said, Zack, it’s…”
I trail off. Apparently, I’m not as confident as I like to think.
“What?” he snarls. “Tell me, Zoey. You don’t have to be shy or feel ashamed with me.”
“Wow, are you a mind reader?” I giggle, shaking my head.
“I can read you,” he says.
A memory strikes me.
Jerry, saying the exact same thing.
I push it away, but not before Zack notices. He wasn’t lying when he said he can read me.
“Is it him?” Zack growls.
I make to tell him, no, but then Zack leans even closer, his breath whispering across my cheeks.
“Whatever we become, however, we grow, we always have to be honest with each other. Always, Zoey. Honesty with each other is the most important thing.”
“I know.” I nod as the sense of his words crashes into me. “I just don’t want you to get the wrong idea. Because I’m not saying you two are the same or anything.”
He lets out a sigh and now it’s my turn to read him.
“You thought I’d think that?” I ask, some unplanned sharpness in my voice.
He smirks. “Have I told you how much I enjoy it when you get sassy?”
I glare at him, but it’s difficult not to allow a smile to ruin the effect. “I mean it. What you said, just reminded me of something he said once. But you two are nothing alike.”
“I know that,” he growls. “But there was something…”
“Nah uh.” I giggle as I give his shoulder a harder squeeze. “You’ve been doing that all evening.”
“Doing what?” he says with a chuckle.
“You’ll start saying something and then just leave it hanging there, letting my overactive mind dream up what you might’ve been thinking. It’s really, honestly infuriating.”
“Oh, yeah?” He laughs again. “Then maybe I’ll keep…”
“No,” I yell, joining in with his laughter. “What were you going to say?”
He loops his arms around me, hugging me close, leaning down, and laying his lips against the top of my head. The gesture is so intimate like we’re already becoming a couple.
“I was worried that if I told you how I feel, you’d get freaked out. Because let’s face it, it’s crazy. And that pervert Jerry said similar things to you.”
“But that’s the thing,” I say passionately. “I feel the same. About belonging to each other, about having a family together… it would’ve seemed crazy to me a couple of days ago. But the second I looked at your photo in that charity booth, I felt it.”
“What?” he whispers, voice gruff, gazing hard down at me.
“Us. Our future. Everything we could be. I thought I was going crazy.”
He smirks, nodding knowingly. “That makes two of us.”
The moment is interrupted by the shrill ringing of my cellphone’s alarm. I let out a sigh, the same way I always do when that alarm goes off.
Zack tilts his head at me, curiosity written across his features. “What is it? Bad news?”
“No… Well, yes, sort of.”
I walk through the apartment, back into the bedroom where the alarm is blaring. I set it to its loudest mode so that I never forget it, even if I want to forget it and pretend tomorrow doesn’t exist. I take my phone from the bedside table and switch it off, turning to Zack with a shaky smile.
I’m not even sure where the smile comes from. It’s like it springs up from a place deep inside of me, oblivious of the circumstances. I’m sure that with Zack at my side I could smile whilst standing on a shore with a tsunami crashing toward me, with a gun to my head, and needles prodding my feet.