“Is this a joke?” she snaps, her lips trembling. “I don’t know why you’d say that.”
“I said it because it’s the truth,” I growl.
“Is it, though?” she demands. “You want to be with me, to really be with me, forever? You want to have babies together?”
“Yes,” I say forcefully. “But not want, need. I can’t explain it… other than to say you’re the sexiest, most beautiful, sweetest, most captivating and, argh, and you’re everything, Tamia. You’re everything I need. I felt it the first moment I saw you.”
“You can’t joke about stuff like this,” she whispers, tears glittering in her eyes. “I mean it, Triston. That isn’t fair. You can’t just say stuff like this.”
“I’m. Not. Joking.”
With each word, I close the distance between us, until I’m standing right in front of her again. I wrap my arms around her and pull her in for a hug, kissing the top of her head and inhaling the scent of her hair.
“Promise?” she whimpers, slipping her hands around my waist and holding on.
“I promise.”
“Swear?”
I smirk. “I swear. Tamia, I’m not lying.”
She leans back in my embrace, trusting me to support her. “The first time you saw me…”
“I claimed you. In my mind, at least. I knew you’d always be mine. I knew no other man would ever get to touch you. Even the thought of another man touching you makes me crazy.”
“Is that why you went all weird when I told you I was a virgin?”
“Did I?” I chuckle.
Despite it all, despite the impossibility and the shock, she laughs. It’s radiant. It lights her up and it lights me up inside in return. “Yes, you did. You went all weird.”
“The news drove me crazy,” I growl. “It confirmed what I knew. You belong to me. Not only is no other man ever going to touch you. No other man has ever claimed you before. You’re mine, Tamia, all mine.”
CHAPTER SIXTEEN
Tamia
“I want that so badly.”
Do you really think this can work? The same voice hisses inside of me, the one that’s been snapping at me every time I think about revealing the truth. It slithers through me like oil-fueled flames, trying to burn down my resolve.
But my need for Triston is greater.
“What?” he growls.
I press my face against his chest, unable to look at him as the words start to flow out of me. “I felt the same the first moment I saw you. Oh, Triston. I couldn’t explain it. I thought I was going crazy. But I felt it. I feel it… inside me, in all of me.”
“It consumed you,” he whispers, his voice fierce.
Of course, he knows.
He feels it too.
“Yes,” I croak. “It did. It has. It is.”
“Tell me everything.”
So I do.
As I struggle to fight back tears – not happy, not sad, but just pure emotion – I tell him about the fantasies I’ve had.
I tell him about my dreams for the future, about sharing a home and a family together.
I tell him about how often I’ve been thinking about a life together.
By the end, I’m able to look at him.
We stare into each other's eyes. I’ve never had a connection like this or even a moment like this with anyone else.
It’s like we’re talking silently. It’s like we’re communicating wordlessly with our future and our everything.
“Who do you belong to?” he whispers, a sense of disbelief coloring his tone.
“You, Triston,” I say breathlessly.
“Say it again,” he demands.
I squeeze my finger into his side, feeling his hulking body through the fabric of his shirt. My fingernails bend against his unyielding powerful muscle.
“I belong to you,” I say. “Only you. Forever you.”
“Nobody else ever gets to touch you.”
“Nobody,” I agree. “I only want—”
His cellphone starts to ring, cutting me off. And his expression darkens as he takes a step back.
“What is it?” I ask, even if I already know.
“This is Alexis’s ringtone.” He swallows audibly, his eyes suddenly flitting all over the place. “I gave her a personal one so… Well, for obvious reasons. I need to take this.”
He doesn’t have to explain why he gave her a unique ringtone. It was so he’d know if anything bad happened to her, if she was calling him in an emergency, he would be there.
Because Alexis was ill for years. And now she has Lisa’s heart. And now I’m her friend.
I already know all of this, of course, I do, but I was able to forget about it for a little while. I was able to pretend those problems didn’t exist.
Now, as Triston answers the phone, I know I can’t.
“Okay, Alexis… slow down. What’s wrong? What’s going on?” His expression hardens, as though he’s carved from stone. “I understand. Sit tight. I’ll come and get you. Yeah, she is… do you want to talk to her? Okay.”
Before I know it, Triston is handing the phone to me.