Total pages in book: 86
Estimated words: 86398 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 432(@200wpm)___ 346(@250wpm)___ 288(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 86398 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 432(@200wpm)___ 346(@250wpm)___ 288(@300wpm)
“What?” What was happening? Where was Claire? Why was he here? In my room?
“In this house,” he corrected. “Not this room, keep up.” He reached for my chin and tilted it up toward him. “They should be gone by now.”
“What? Huh? What are you—” I fought against him, but he held me tight.
And just like the rain, I fell.
Every last tear just released from my body as I banged him with my fists, wishing he would love me more, knowing he couldn’t.
“I hate you!” I yelled. “I hate you!”
“I know.” He gripped me tighter against him. “I know.”
“Leave then!” I shoved against his chest, but he refused to move. “Just leave! Go with her! Be happy!”
“But I’m not!” He set me on my feet. “Not without you. I go nowhere without you. Don’t you see? This is how it’s meant to be. You and me. I didn’t see it before. I refused to. I ignored the signs, the fights, everything, because how could someone, how? Just how?” He sighed, lowering his head until it touched mine. “She lied about the baby.”
I gasped and immediately touched my own stomach. “Wh-what?”
“She lied.” He kissed my head. “It was her twisted way of thinking I’d change my mind about my job—the one you saw and experienced the other night.”
“But why?” I couldn’t fathom it. “Why?”
He kissed my head again. “Exactly why I love you.”
“No!” I shook my head. “I can’t do it, Ash, I can’t do some goodbye screw before you leave me, I can’t, I can’t! Please just go!”
He started carrying me down the stairs despite my fighting him and then stopped at the bottom. “Where the hell would I go?”
“With Claire!” I screamed in defeat. “Why are you still here?” So she lied, that didn’t mean he didn’t love her!
“Oh Annie, I thought I told you before… when that bomb was in my room, when you were there with your light, your goodness.” He tilted my chin up toward him and whispered. “Because here is where you are.”
His mouth covered mine.
I gasped; his tongue was invasive, his body hot.
The cool night air hit me as he carried me outside. “I thought I said pool in five minutes—”
“But Ash.”
“We can talk later,” he whispered. “Until the stars fall.”
I froze beneath his kiss. “Ummm.”
“You.” He kissed me again and then, “It was you wasn’t it? That night? Not Claire?”
Tears fell again. “Yes, and I’m so sorry. I got pregnant, and I didn’t tell you, and I told your dad, and then I lost him—”
Ash went completely still next to me. “Wh-what?”
I’d never heard him stutter before or miss a beat.
Rain poured down around us as I yelled. “I’m sorry.”
“For getting… what?”
I pulled away. “Pregnant. Obviously, it wasn’t planned, and you were so mean to me, so hurt…” I hugged myself or attempted to, but he just refused, pulling me into his lap and kissing every inch of my face. “It’s okay—I lost the baby, in Italy.”
“No! No!” he roared, hands shaking, body pale as his swollen lips descended. “Never. It will never be okay. What the hell? You did that alone? Without me? And I was… I was…” He stumbled a bit.
I clung to him as he lowered us fully clothed into the warm pool, near the shallow end where our chaos started over a year ago. “Ash, really.”
“Annie… really,” he deadpanned. His expression softened. “You lost a baby—our baby—without me by your side. That’s unforgivable. I really am the devil.”
“Ash.” I sighed. “Really, you’re here now… right?”
“I’m not leaving your side.” He vowed as his voice cracked. “And as of right now, you’re not leaving mine.”
“But—”
“Mine.” He captured my mouth. “Forever.”
I pulled back with a sad smile. “And Claire?”
“On a flight out tomorrow,” he said without remorse. “I’m not saying that we don’t have a lot of shit to go over, but I do know one thing.” He kissed me roughly again. “It’s you. And if she in all her mistakes brought me you? I can’t be mad. I can’t.”
I laughed, and then a tear escaped. “That was very romantic for such an asshole.”
His smile was sad. “I try.” He spun me against the shallow end stairs. “Now, let me show you how much I love you.”
“Drown me in it, Ash, drown me.” I whimpered as he pulled me into the deep end and started to kiss.
Clothes came off in slow motion.
And then it was just us.
Finally joined.
Him pressing me up against the wall, my hair a tangled mess as he tugged and pulled. My lips parted as his tongue met mine.
And as the rain poured.
As he thrust into me.
I welcomed him home.
To our home.
“I missed you when you were gone…” he confessed. “I missed you every day.”
“I missed you too,” I cried out when he kissed down my neck, his fingers finding my core. “So much.”