Page 292 of The Tempted
Chapter Thirty-Six
I forgot what the world was like before it slipped from beneath my feet. I waited for my life to flash before my eyes, the poignant moments I was never supposed to forget, but they didn’t come.
Maybe it wasn’t the end.
I took deep breaths through my nose, fighting the dryness of my mouth and repelling against the handkerchief that threatened to choke me. I didn’t know how much more I could take and wished for peace. So, when the sound of the door crashing against the wall came I didn’t dread it. The twenty-four-hour mark had to have hit by now and it would all be over.
It was my time.
Goodbye, world.
Goodbye, Jack.
“Holy shit,” said a voice I didn’t recognize as one of my three captors. It was huskier, gravely and vaguely familiar but I didn’t dwell on it. If I put a face to the voice, then it was just one more person I’d have to say goodbye to.
“He’s barely got a pulse,” the voice said.
Fading.
Goodbye.
Then it came to me. The sense of touch. Someone else’s touch. Strong hands touched my shoulders, calloused fingers traveled gently up my neck and paused on my cheeks. The fingertips pulled the tape from my mouth, prying my dry lips further open to remove the handkerchief.
Air.
I took a deep breath through my mouth, the muscles in my jaw aching.
Feeling.
I felt those fingertips touch my lips and I tried to speak but I succumbed to the gentleness, the faint feeling of security enveloped me and I was lost to anything else. I felt the person lean over me and gently untie the knot from the blindfold wrapped around my head blocking my vision. The blindfold fell from me and I was blinded by the light as the darkness shed.
I blinked.
Dark soulful eyes gazed into mine and I heard the gasp escape my lips.
“You,” I sobbed, the word barely audible.
“Me,” Jack whispered.
I relived those few moments when Jack rescued me every night for a week after he brought me home. One would think that dreaming about my time captive would be considered a nightmare, but my rescue was no nightmare and I welcomed the dream. The moment the blindfold dropped to the floor and my eyes met Jack’s was pure bliss.
Those eyes, the darkest eyes I had ever seen.
The ones that got me every single time.
I remember staring into his eyes and seeing the change in them when adoration turned to love. It was the moment he looked at me as if I was an angel that had dropped from the sky and landed at his feet. The first time he uttered that single word.
You.
Who knew one word as simple as that one would hold so much meaning? One word tied to the biggest revelation either of us would ever know.
I know now the meaning of the word,you. At least for me and Jack, I do. It means finally being aware that I’ve found the missing piece of my heart. It means I’ve waited my whole life foryouand now hereyouare. It is knowing that because ofyouI am now complete. It meansyou’vehealed me. It means I loveyou.
You, you’re everything.
You’rethe moon and the stars.
You’remy whole world.
