“Story Hale, you crashed into my lips and into my life. You took my virginity. You took my heart. You are the only woman I have ever had sex with, and the only woman I ever want to sleep with. You.”
A look flickered across her eyes; her breathing came short and sporadic and she tried to break away, tried to shove me off, but I held her by the wrist so she couldn’t run.
“Don’t tell me you don’t fucking trust me. You bleed with me.”
“I c
an’t breathe. Let me go.”
“Did what we just do mean nothing to you? Every secret we share, is it nothing? Look at me, Story.”
She yanked on her wrist. “Let me go.”
“No!” It bellowed out of me, louder than the wind, louder than any word I’d ever said. Scratching at my throat and lungs.
She fell back down beside me, shoulders slumped.
I let her wrist go, studying her, waiting for her to speak, afraid to touch her and spook her.
“Tell me what the fuck I have to do, and I’ll do it.”
“I believe you,” she whispered.
“Then why won’t you look at me?”
Slowly her eyes locked back on mine, her breathing labored. “We’re ruined,” she whispered. “We’re broken forever.”
STORY
* * *
“What the fuck are you talking about?” He stroked a hand down my face. The look in his eyes too soft. Too sweet.
“Even if you didn’t sleep with her, I slept with him. I slept with West.”
I was the only one in this twisted, fucked situation who did that.
Grayson smiled.
Not the Grayson Crowne smile, the Grayson smile. The one that made me feel like the sun had shone just for me. I wondered how he could be smiling at a time like this.
When he spoke, his words were gentle. “There you go again, Snitch, saying stupid shit.” He dragged my lips to his. “You’re my girl, Story.”
Tears I’d held at bay for months finally fell. I tried to hide them in my shoulder, but Grayson pressed me against his chest, holding me as sobs wracked my chest.
I pushed off, swiping the tears away.
“It’s not my baby, Snitch.”
I pressed my palm to his cheek. “I love you, Grayson. I will always love you Grayson Crowne.”
He grasped my wrist, holding it in place. “Don’t. I’m not letting you go, Story Hale. I’m never letting you go again.”
“Can you live with yourself if you walk away like this, Grayson? I’m not going to make you choose between me and your wife, between which of your children to abandon.”
“I’m not asking you to choose. I’ve chosen.”
“All you’ve ever wanted was to be nothing like your father.”