“B-But you said the accident wiped your memories,” I mutter.
“I remember a lot of things,” he says.
I gasp. “How?”
“Because of you.”
The air is knocked out of my lungs.
“Since you came back into my life, the memories came pouring back in as hard as this rain,” he says, pointing up at the sky. “But even before you came back, I remembered you. You’re the only thing that kept me going.”
The sky cracks open, thunder reverberating in my ears, but nothing has ever been louder than my own beating heart pulsating for his.
But when his mouth opens, I am not prepared. “The only one I’ve ever loved is you.”
Oh, God.
I was so blindsided by my need to keep my sister safe from my parents’ company that I failed to see what was right in front of me. And I can’t fucking breathe.
All this time, I thought he only wanted me here to torment me.
To show me he could have his way with me because I meant nothing to him, and he only wanted me for my body.
But I was so wrong.
So wrong about my own damn heart and his.
I thought I could ignore it. Crush the feelings I have into a tiny little box and make them disappear.
But when I saw him after those three painful years, all of it came trickling back in little by little until I could no longer deny it.
I fell in love with the monster who tried to kill my sister.
And the monster fell in love with me.
Liam
* * *
One kiss.
One kiss was the reason for all this madness.
The destruction behind everything we once held dear.
Now I understand the hatred she felt for me, all the reasons she pushed me away … all of it culminating in that one kiss.
The kiss that never should’ve been given.
She tries to back away, but I grab her hand before she does. “You didn’t want me to marry Jill …” I say. “You wanted me to marry you.”
All these years, when she was so distant, I thought she didn’t want me. I thought she gave her okay for me to marry her sister because she didn’t mind even though I hated the idea.
But she was hiding her true feelings.
All to protect her sister.
Her family.