"I would have torn him apart with my bare hands to get you away from him."
"You did."
"You didn't belong in a place like that." I reach to grab her thigh, to press it against my stomach. "That's not who you are."
"It's who you are," she whispers against my neck. "It's what you like."
"No." I turn to look at her. "I fucked in public because it helped me get off. I will never need that with you."
"Never?"
"Never." I stare in her eyes. The eyes I looked in five years ago when I heard her silent pleas and the eyes I stared into when I fucked her for the first time. "I don't want to share you with anyone, Adley. I don't want anyone to see this." I run my hand over her thigh and up her bare back.
"I'm enough for you."
I love that it's a statement and not a fucking question. "You will always be everything I need."
"Can I take you to bed?" She rolls off me and sits up. The light filtering in from outside frames her like a halo. "I want you to fall asleep in my arms."
"Carry me there," I joke. "I'm so fucking wasted."
"You have to stop drinking because I need a study partner."
I bolt up into a sitting position. "You need a what?"
"I was accepted into med school today." Her voice trembles. "Sydney called me when the letter arrived. I was on my way to work. I called Donovan and told him about my dream to be a cardiologist. He told me to go home and read the letter and if the news was good to take the day to celebrate."
"Is that why you disappeared? I was trying to find you for hours."
"I thought you were with your mom." She smooths her hand over my brow. "Your dad just died and I know she needs you. I didn't want to interrupt your time with her, so I finally went to see that new apartment my folks moved into three months ago. I've been thinking a lot about them the last few days."
"What did they say about med school?"
"I had every intention of telling you first but I wanted that to be in person."
I smile at her. Of course, she'd want that. She wanted to hold onto that memory.
"My dad started talking about how I needed to make a decision about going back to school to be a vet soon, so I pulled the letter out of my purse, and well, they were happy."
"Happy?" I bark out a laugh." They were over the moon, weren't they?"
"My dad was over the moon about med school." She presses her lips to mine. "My mom was over the moon that I'm in love."
"That came up?"
"That's what I went over to tell them." She takes a deep breath. "Time flew by, and when I finally looked at my phone in my purse, I saw all your missed calls and a few from Tilly. I tried calling you first, but you didn’t pick up so I called her and she told me about the clinic, and the jerk and you. That's when I realized that you knew that I was the girl from the club."
Chapter 49
Adley
He's been asleep for hours. I helped him get to his feet when he said he needed to stand. He leaned on me while we walked to the bedroom. I got in bed with him and held him until he fell asleep and then I slipped out of his arms so I could clean the broken glass.
"It's been one hell of a week." His voice is behind me. "If this is how it's always going to be with us, we need to renegotiate the no drinking policy."
I turn to look at him. He's only wearing his boxer briefs. That's exactly how I left him.
"Next week will be better." I pat the sofa next to me. "I'm going to take you up on your offer."