Page 561 of The Tempted
“I know you said this was home, but home should be a place you want to go to not somewhere you dread,” she whispered.
I looked at her.
“I want to be here. I want to be here with you,” I assured her. “I never expected to want to come back here or ever bring someone here…until you.”
My eyes lingered on her face.
How could something so perfect be here with me?
How could she be the one who breaths life back into me?
I turned around, fitted the key into the lock and pushed open the stiff door. I watched her step inside and I felt a lump work its way into my throat. I bought this house at a time in my life when Lacey didn’t exist in my world…sure, she was part of my life but she wasn’t my everything.
Not then.
There were reasons I bought this house, and a woman I pictured greeting me at the door and it wasn’t Lacey but looking at her now, as she tried to turn on the lights, it became clear that life worked in mysterious ways. You can plan your whole fucking life but it just takes one thing to change the course you’re on…and sometimes you think it’s the end but the end of something is the beginning of something else.
There was only one person who belonged here.
One person that could make me want to come home.
And that person was staring back at me with confusion written all over her pretty little face.
“You weren’t even on my radar,” I admitted huskily as I closed the distance between us and brushed her hand away from the light switch. I took her hand and walked her towards the back of the house, to the large empty room with floor to ceiling windows. The moonlight shone through along with the lights of the bridge that was off in the distance.
“Wow,” she whispered, letting go of my hand to walk towards the windows. “What a beautiful view.”
“You ain’t kidding,” I said as I leaned against the wall and watched her stare at the scenery.
Prettiest view a man like me ever got to see.
When did I become a lucky bastard?
She slowly turned around, the moonlight illuminating her face. I call her my angel and in that moment that’s exactly what she looked like.
The angel sent to rescue me.
Mine.
There was that word again.
“Blackie, tell me,” she started. “Is this your house? Why are we here?”
“Yeah, it is,” I exhaled. “I thought a man’s worth was measured in his possessions. Greed. It was all I knew and I kept reaching higher, making moves left and right, climbing the ladder and increasing my bankroll. I had no conscience, none at all. I would do a score, get paid, and instantly look for a bigger score, one with a higher payout and equally high consequences. I lost myself to the greed, and I began to lose Christine too. She didn’t care about the money, the fancy things I’d come home with, all she wanted was the man she married in her life. I didn’t see it then.”
I paused, remembering the times she’d plead with me to stay with her, to be the man she fell in love with. I would lavish her with gifts and she’d smile but every piece of jewelry sat in a drawer.
“I thought I could fix things. I gave myself a year, twelve months of hustling hard and playing dirty. But Christine had a plan too and neither one of us thought to share it with the other,” I sighed. “I bought this house nine months later, nine months too late because she was already working with the cops to bring me down,” I confessed.
“She didn’t go through with it though and never testified. She took her life and saved mine, robbing me of the chance to bring her here…to bring her home.”
Lacey stepped toward me, wrapped her arms around my neck and held on for dear life.
“I’m sorry,” she murmured against my ear. “I’m so sorry.”
I pulled back, brushing away the hair that fell over her eye and tucked it behind her ear.
“Never wanted to come back here.”
“So why now? Why are we here?
“Because I found an ounce of hope in an angel,” I said as I ran the pad of my thumb along her bottom lip. “You, Lace…you’re my hope.”
Ain’t that some shit.
