AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“I saw you!” he said, loud enough to startle me. “I saw you.” This time his words were quieter. He sounded broken. He stood up, his fingers interlaced on top of his head. The floor creaked beneath him as he paced. “I saw you on the floor of the casino, on the phone crying to someone.”
As guilt buried me, I couldn’t help but cry. “Oh, my God. Travis, no. It’s not what you think at all.”
Tears spilled over his cheeks, his bottom lip trembling. “And I Iet you do it. I let you marry me knowing you didn’t want to, or at the very least weren’t sure. What kind of piece of shit lets the girl he loves do that? I’m so sorry, Pidge, but I was desperate to keep you. I still am. It consumes every thought I have. Every decision I make. I’ve never been in love before, I don’t know if this is normal or there’s something wrong with me or … I’m doing the best I can, but I … I don’t know what the fuck I’m doing. Pidge … I don’t …”
I sat up on my knees, moving to the end of the bed, reaching for him. “Come here.”
He didn’t hesitate. He immediately crashed into me, holding me tight and burying his face into my neck.
“I swear … I swear to God … I wasn’t crying because I didn’t want to marry you. I was crying because of the fire. Because …” I shook my head, knowing I shouldn’t say more.
He looked up at me. “Who were you talking to?”
“Trent and Cami. They were updating me,” I said. I positioned myself in a way that would force him to look me in the eyes. “It wasn’t because I was doing something I didn’t want to do. I wanted to, more than I can ever explain to you. More than I can explain to me.”
He nodded, wiping his eyes.
“You’ve thought that since Vegas? Why didn’t you tell me?” I asked.
He shook his head, his eyes glossing over again. “Because I was afraid of what you’d say, Pidge. I couldn’t get everything I wanted and then have it ripped away. I know that was a selfish, pussy thing to do, but”—he held his hands out to his sides and then let them fall—“I’m not man enough to tell you if you wanna go, go. Because I don’t want that.”
“I don’t want it, either,” I said, wiping my cheek.Huh. I was wrong that he wouldn’t have let me go through with the wedding if he knew the truth.Still, I couldn’t have risked him saying no. He says that now, but would he have felt differently in the moment? It was a risk I couldn’t take.“Listen to me. I don’t know what I did before you, Travis. And I never want to remember. I don’t.”
He took a deep breath and exhaled. He looked down to the floor, his face crumbling, and then he looked back up at me from under his brow. “You crying on the floor was about the fire?”
I sniffed. “I know it looks bad, but I swear it was. Please, please believe me.”
“And because you were afraid about what might happen when we got back.”
“Iwantedto marry you. I love you and I love being your wife.”
He nodded but began to pace again.
“Hearing you talk like this breaks my heart for you,” I said, my voice cracking. “It was earlier than I’d planned, Travis, we both know that, but everything changed when Keaton burned.”
“You knew I’d need an alibi. Just say it, Abby.”
I sighed. “It created an alibi for you, okay? That’s a symptom, not the cause. I married you because Iloveyou. I’ll say it a million times if I have to. I was certain, about everything. That’s why I asked you to marry me.”
“Thank God,” he breathed out. He walked over to me and held my face with both hands. His lips and hands were trembling, but he put his lips on mine. I opened my mouth, more than willing to feel his tongue against mine. Just ten minutes before I’d thought he was having second thoughts, but the way he was pulling at me, the relief made the usual butterflies I felt do full-fledged somersaults all over my body.
“Can we agree then that we’re both afraid the other is going to leave, and we know now that we’re both staying?”
He nodded again. “You’re really mine,” he said.
“I’m really yours.”
His mouth pulled away long enough for him to trace a line with his lips down my neck to my collarbone, noticing the strap over my shoulder. He looked over me with longing, his eyes pouring over my black, flowing tank top and matching panties. At the same time, I was thankful that was all he’d have to remove to be inside me. He stared at my skin as he slid the narrow fabric of the tank’s strap down, kissing the very spot he’d been focused on.
With one of his hands and in one motion, my torso was bare. He moved his mouth slowly and tenderly down my chest and stomach, pausing just long enough in all my favorite places to make my insides ache. He leaned me back against the mattress, and I relaxed, closing my eyes.
I had never felt so at home with not only someone else, but inside my own skin. Travis made me feel like the most beautiful woman he’d ever seen, and more loved than anyone had in my life.
He didn’t just want me, he needed me. He worshipped every inch of my body.
I was his religion.
“I love you,” I whispered.
