AllFreeNovel
Share Us
"I promised I would leave if it was better for you. But evidence proves otherwise. You haven't been okay since I left so stop acting like you don't need me. You need me, Olivia and I'm not making the same mistake twice. I will not walk away so get used to me."
With those cutting, sweet, infuriating, heart stopping words…Jace closed the car door. I watched with trembling hands and erratic emotions as he rounded the rear of the vehicle to sit beside me.
He was right. I needed him.
Chapter 3
Jace didn't say anything as he slid into the seat beside me. He ran a hand though disheveled hair and I heard him sigh deep in his chest. I wanted to comfort him. That's how utterly pathetic I was. I wanted to comfort him despite my anger.
Thankfully, I didn't. Instead, I forced my hands to remain tightly folded in my lap as I looked out the window. My eyes were tired. My lids heavy. I hadn't felt so at peace in weeks. Seven to be exact. I almost feared if I closed my eyes, I would sleep like the dead. There was a part of me that wanted to tell Jace just what he had done to me. Just how he'd destroyed me…how his presence now was surely going to be the death of me…but I didn't. I relented to the need that pulled at the fringes of my mind and let my eyes close. I wouldn't sleep. I would just relax my bruised lids. I would revel in the few minutes of peace I had been allotted because I was certain this was the calm before the tsunami of tears my eyes would cry when Jace walked away again. Because, I was near certain I would tell him to walk away. He wasn't good for me. But not having him wasn't any better. I decided this was not an internal conversation to be had while under the influence of alcohol and I felt my head loll against the headrest. Darkness flooded and my mind and for the first time in seven weeks, I succumbed to a quiet within sleep that was reserved only for those with peace of mind.
***
I knew Olivia had been handling my departure bad. Fuck, I'd been handling it worse then I had ever handled anything. But I hadn't thought she was this bad. Walking away from her had killed a part of me I feared I would never get back. For seven weeks I'd buried myself in work and liquor. I didn't see my family. I didn't return their calls and I barely spoke to Caleb. I was wasting myself away because I couldn't fathom living a life without Olivia. She was the center of my fucking universe. And then my phone rang and Trisha's name lit the screen. My heart nearly pounded itself from my chest as I answered. She'd told me she was calling because of Olivia. And by God I thought something had happened. I hadn't even been capable of words, and at my silence, she'd continued. She told me Olivia was falling into a depression that frightened her. She barely recognized her friend and now she was calling for help because she blamed Olivia's state of depression on my disappearance from her life.
I got myself to the club as fast as I possibly could. If I hadn't been at the office with Gabe, I would have been screwed. Because I had been drinking and there was no way in hell I could have driven. But I'm certain I would have tried.
At the thought, I glanced over at Olivia for the billionth time. She was asleep and I longed to pull her across the seat into my arms. But I couldn't risk waking her. She looked so damned tired and frail. She'd lost weight. Her cheeks were hollow, her collarbone visible. Shadows painted the skin beneath her eyes a bruised shade of purple. She'd tried to hide the circles with concealer but I could see them. She was exhausted. Because of me.
"Where to?" Gabe spoke into the silence.
"My place." I answered without reservation. We were figuring this shit out. It was obvious that what we were trying to do…living without each other…was not working. We needed to reevaluate the standing of our relationship. And I was not allowing her out of my sight until we were standing on ground I deemed appropriate.
We rode the rest of the way in silence and when Gabe finally pulled up outside my penthouse building, I sighed relief. She was still asleep and I didn't plan on waking her up. I climbed out of the car and made my way to the passenger side where Olivia sat. I opened her door as Gabe watched me unbuckle her before lifting her into my arms. Her head rested against my chest as I kicked the door shut. I was almost at the door when Gabe called out to me.
"Mr. Rush," I paused and turned to face him. He nodded to Olivia. "Good luck. The best advice I can offer you is to listen to her. Hear the meaning behind her words, not just the words themselves."
I nodded. "Thanks, Gabe."
I didn't wait for a reply. I turned and walked into the door, Ray, the doorman held open for me. He frowned as his eyes fell on Olivia, but I didn't offer an explanation to his obvious silent question as I crossed the lobby to the elevator. I couldn't wait to get her where she belonged. In my bed. It's where she should have been all along. I never should have listened to her when she asked me to walk away from her without ever looking back. I thought I was doing what was best for her because she had looked just so damned terrified from me. Not to mention repulsed. I never thought for one minute she was this destroyed by my absence in her life. I never imagined I made such an impact on her life. But the fact that I had made me all the more determined not to allow her to try and push me away again. I refused, above all else to walk out of her life ever again. Since the day I seen her sitting in the back of the taxi, she had been mine. I knew it then. The first time I saw the shimmer of her brown eyes, the quirk of a smile on her lips. I knew she was mine. She belonged to me before either of us had even spoken a word to each other. She was fucking made for me. I was certain of it. I didn't let go of what was mine without a damned good fight. And I wasn't letting go of her. Never. Ever. Again.
