Keeping me waiting, he takes a long pull with his eyes still set on me. When he sets the glass down, his fingers spin it around. “It wasn’t a scheme, Story. My parents and I have unfinished business. When I was leaving to spend the holiday with you, they made me promise I’d put on a good front at the party.”
“What business? You’re twenty-two, Cooper. You make it sound like you’re in debt to the mafia.”
With a shrug, he nods his head. “Kind of feels that way.”
Feeling anxious, I sit forward. “Make this make sense to a layman.”
The chair slides out from under him abruptly, and he stalks toward me. Kneeling before me, he pleads, “If I could, I would.”
“You have to. I can’t be in a relationship that has secrets.” I hear my own plea in my tone, but I know my capabilities, and if we lose trust between us, we’ll go up in flames. “I’ve never been able to trust anyone I’ve dated, Cooper. I trust you. I trust the promise you made me because I feel you meant it. I could see it in your eyes. But we’re a team, or we’re not. You tell me.”
“We are. Us against them.” Taking my hand, he moves to the sofa next to me. “You can trust me. I came back to Atterton to be with you, babe. It doesn’t take away the strain that I have with them, but I chose you,” he says, pain working through his irises. “More than you’ll ever know.”
My hand would shake from the anxiety, but he’s holding the one so firmly between his that it can’t. “I’ve been very careful about curating a life free from trauma. I’ve made a lot of missteps and lapses in judgment prior to you.” I move closer so our legs are pressed together. “Cooper, I had stopped dating altogether to let myself heal, but then you came along. Maybe you think I was hitting on you by inviting you over, but I wasn’t. I wasn’t thinking that at all.”
Tentatively, he reaches for my face and caresses my cheek. The roughness of the pad of his thumb scrapes as it rolls over my skin. I’ll take the pain, the marks, the scars if it gets me to the truth. Those will heal. I’m not so sure about my heart.
Catching a tear that I didn’t know had fallen, he wipes it away as if he can’t bear it. “We’re together in this. Whatever this is or will be, I want you, Story. I want everything we are together because I’m so fucking in love with you.”
“How do you know in such a short time?”
“Because I’m going out of my mind trying to figure out how to deal with my feelings.”
“How did you used to handle them?”
“Used to?” he asks, shaking his head. “I’ve never felt like this before. Do you not feel how my heart beats for you? Do you not see how I can’t stop looking at you? Amazed you’re mine?” He cradles my face in his hands and runs his nose along mine. With his lips pressed to the corner of my mouth, he whispers, “I don’t deserve you, but my soul is tied to yours. You’re my savior, and I’m your curse. This is what we are together. Each other’s destiny.”
My breath is knocked from my lungs as his admission becomes a prayer on his tongue. I kiss him. Selfishly, I kiss him for me. And then I kiss him to take away the pain that’s filled his breath and body.
He’s right about our hearts aligning and our purpose changing. I wasn’t living before him. I was waiting.
We were either brought together or found each other. I’m not sure if it’s the former or the latter, but he feels right in every way to me. So I won’t argue against our fate when time doesn’t matter when we’re together. Two weeks. Two months. Two years. Two lifetimes. With him, it’s easy to believe that we have time on our side without the threat of fate intervening.
I’ll stick with destiny.
If he’s willing to fight for me, I’ll let him and come back twice as strong to fight for him.
I kiss him again because it’s not just my body craving the bond this time. It’s also my soul. Cooper Haywood was mine before I knew he existed.
That’s how souls work. They find each other in every lifetime.
But when he pulls back, his eyes fall closed as his head drops. “I gave up my inheritance.”
“What? What are you talking about? Look at me,” I say, my heart pounding, my chest aching for him. “Look at me, Cooper.”
When he does, there are no tears to be shed. Instead, rejection fills his features, a shame that shouldn’t be there. Failure rounds his shoulders and has them caving forward. He lifts his eyes to meet mine. “I didn’t expect it. I swear. I’d signed it away years ago just to piss off my parents. But then they came around.” He stands and begins to pace. “I could be good.”