“Offer stands.Open invitation.All you have to do is tell me, and I’m yours.”Shane said sweetly, watching me.
“Whatever!I wanted to make sure you were okay,” Isaac groaned.“Just hurry up!You’re running the water bill sky high, asshole.”The door slammed shut quickly after he cussed at Shane.
“I mean it, Corinne.I’m yours if you’ll be mine,” he admitted, taking my shoulders into his hands, keeping me at arm’s length.“And I respect you.I want you so unbelievably bad, but not like this.I want us to have all the time in the world if you decide this is what you want.”
“I do,” I nervously told him, chewing on the inside of my lip timidly.
“Fuck yeah!”
“You cussed.”I laughed quietly.
“I always do.”He released me and reached past me to fetch the towel slung over the rod.
“What are you doing?”
“Respecting you.I might hate myself for the rest of my life for leaving, but it’s the right thing to do.”His feet moved to the back of the shower as he got out of the water, smiling at me before he climbed over the edge of the tub.Leaning toward me, he lightly pressed his lips to mine and then closed the shower curtain.
“Okay,” I answered him in a daze.
“Finish your shower.That should put enough time in between us to fool anyone.”
CHAPTER19
I FORGOT…I REMEMBER
COR
Ichucked something else—a boot this time—at Shane’s head, and he dodged it.
“For fucks sake, Cor!Quit throwing shit at me,” Shane warned, picking the boot up off the floor and shoving it into the trash bag beside him.
“Quit telling me what to do.You’re nothing to me.You hear me?Nothing!”I shouted the lie, hoping to release myself from all of the anger I had pent up inside me.I thought seeing him again had been hard, but that was before I had to be alone with him.I was so stupid.Every time I looked at him, I didn’t know if I wanted to kiss him senseless or knock him out.In the end, I chose option three.Throwing shit at him.Swiping my pillow off the bed, I sent it soaring in his direction before turning away from him.I couldn’t look at him anymore.
“Little Dove.”Hearing the nickname made my heart hurt.I faced him as if I didn’t have any choice in the matter.He’d caught the pillow, and when he saw me look at him, he hurled it back across the room, and it bounced off my stomach.
“Why can’t you just leave me alone?”I asked him.I’d hoped maybe he would take the hint.He’d left once, why couldn’t he do it again?
“Because.”He crossed the room, grabbed my wrist, and lifted it in front of my face.“You’re mine, and I’m yours.You might not like it, but I’ll always belong to you, Corinne.I’ve never stopped loving you.I’ve tried.Believe me.I tried so fucking hard to forget you, but I can’t do it,” he breathlessly admitted as if his truths had stolen all of the air out of his lungs.
I gritted my teeth.I didn’t want to hear this.But once the words were out there, I wasn’t able to ignore them, despite how much I wanted to.And I did.Feeling my broken heart swell with love as life was pumped back into it from his sweet words was absolute torture.I tried to dig my claws into the hate I’d told myself I felt for him, but they slipped out, losing their hold.
“Say something,” he ordered, staring at me, willing me to bend to his command.I shook my head out of spite.
“If you don’t open your mouth and speak, I won’t stop myself, Cor.I swear, if you don’t stop me, I’m going to kiss those lips I’ve wanted for longer than I can remember.”His voice sounded deeper than I remembered and made my knees weak.
I didn’t have it in me to stop him.I missed him as much as he missed me.Kissing him would only complicate an already extremely complicated situation, but my mouth wouldn’t open.I’d spent years blaming him for leaving me, never considering he did it to respect my wishes.I thought back to the time we wound up in the shower together and he left me under the water.He left then because he said it was the right thing to do.If I really thought about it, he always had.There was only one time when he hadn’t walked away, and that had been the turning point in our lives.Looking back on it, he was doing what he thought was best and did it to protect me.
Since I didn’t answer, he kept his word.He slowly lifted my chin with his finger, and I closed my eyes.His lips lightly brushed against mine at first, and an unintentional moan left my mouth.He sucked air through his teeth and cussed.
“You’re so fucking beautiful.”His tongue swiped between my parted lips, and my mouth opened for him.I was putty in his hands at this point.
I forgot how to hate him.
I forgot how to love him.
I think I even forgot my own name.
For the first time in a long while, my mind was completely free of the never-ending internal monologue that overwhelmed my brain every waking second of my entire life.
