Page 69 of Bound By Threads
“Don’t do it again.”
“I won’t. I love you too much to hurt you like that ever again.”
“I’m with Oscar,” she says.
“I know. I saw you both the morning after I fucked up. It gave me time to think, which is why I was avoiding you for a few days. I realized I was close to losing you. I love you, Lottie, and the only thing I want is for you to be happy.”
She sighs. “Then what do you want, Archer?”
“You. We’re not soulmates.” Hurt flashes across her face, sharp and raw, before she shuts down all emotion. Her mouth snaps shut, her jaw tightens, and I see the walls go up.
I can’t stand it.
I grip the back of her neck, forcing her to look at me. She doesn’t try to fight me, but her eyes are filled with so much confusion and pain that it makes my heart ache.
I can feel the tremor in her body from being this close, and I nearly break, wanting to devour her right here and now, but she needs to hear this first, so there’s no more confusion.
“We’re not soulmates,” I repeat, my voice surprisingly steady despite the storm I can feel swirling in my chest. “This is not fate or chance. You and me? I willed it. I knit the very threads of fate myself until it spelled out your name…”
“I love you on purpose. You have become my only purpose in life, and I love you with everything I am. Do you understand the power you have over me, baby? I’m yours forever if you want me.”
I slam my lips to hers before she can say anything. It’s not gentle or soft. It’s desperate, raw, as if I’m trying to prove to her everything I can’t say with words.
I pour everything into it—my guilt, my love, my fear that I’ll lose her.
It’s an apology.
A confession.
A promise that I’ll take the burden of all her pain.
For a moment, everything in the world is right. She melts into me, her hands tangle in my shirt, her lips moving with mine in a rhythm that’s purely our own.
It’s not perfect. It’s messy, but it’s real.
It’s her.
When we pull away, I look at her, my chest heaving, my mind still buzzing.
She’s staring at me, her lips slightly swollen, and her eyes are wide.
“Do you get it now?” I whisper, my hand still cupping her face, my thumb brushing across her skin like I can erase some of the pain.
She nods slowly, then her forehead drops against mine, her breath brushing against my lips. “I get it,” she whispers, the words barely audible over the sound of the waves crashing. “I just don’t know if I deserve it.”
A quiet anger flares in me—not at her but at the world for every making her think she’s unworthy of love, this deep and consuming. I take her hand in mine and softly kiss her. “You deserveeverything,baby. You’ve survived hell and came out the other side still capable of love. That’s not weakness. That’s strength.”
Tears slip down her cheeks, but she doesn’t look away, and it undoes me more than anything else ever could because Lottie Reyes is finally mine. I wrap my arms around her, pull her into my chest, where I know she’s safe.
We stay like that,tangled in silence. She clutches my shirt like she’s afraid I’ll disappear, and I hold her like I’m anchoring her to the earth. We listen to the waves, the wind, and the birds soaring above us until her grip loosens on my shirt and she tilts her head up to me, a content smile on her face.
“I’m never going to ask you to choose,” I murmur. “But I need you like I need air to breathe. I’ll understand if you aren’t ready to forgive me yet, what I did was so shitty and out of line but I’ll be here. Waiting for as long as you need and loving you anyway.”
Lottie sighs. “You said we’re not soulmates.”
“We’re not,” I say again, brushing my thumb along her jaw, “because soulmates are handed to you by the universe. This?” I lean in, my voice rough, my lips so close to hers that I can feel her breath against my skin. “This is a choice. And I choose you. I will choose you every damn day no matter how broken you think you are.”
Chapter33
