AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“I’m in love with you, McKenzie Beaumont. I can’t sleep anymore without you next to me. I can’t get you out of my thoughts. I can’t function like a normal human being. I’ve. Fallen. In. Love. With. You.”
This makes no sense. Although I think he’s just told me he’s in love with me, he’s almost yelling. The words and the tone don’t match.
“In love with me?” I finally ask, my voice low, as if afraid of spooking him. “Did you say that you’re in love with me?” Is this real? Or do I want it so much I’m dreaming it up?
“Before you retreat, or run away, or whatever it is you do when you’re getting too close to someone, let me finish. We both spook easily. We both have trust issues. But I know you care about me. I see it in your eyes, and I feel it in your touch, in the way you make love to me. I know we have something, and I think we’d be fools to throw it away because we’re scared. I’ve been a fool and I’m sorrier than words can ever express, but if you give me a real chance I won’t pretend to be perfect, but I swear I’ll fix my bad habits, and I’ll love you for the rest of our lives.”
He begins pacing, not looking at me as he delivers his speech. I don’t know what to say, how to respond. Not that he’s giving me a chance to talk. Every time I open my mouth to say something, he starts speaking again.
“I know I can be blunt, that I come across as cold. But I’m different when I’m with you. I want to laugh, to smile, I want to lie beneath the stars and stay there until we’ve counted them all. I want to give you the stars...” He runs his hands through his hair — he’s been doing that a lot. Then he spins back around and moves toward me, determination in his every step.
“Byron...” I start to reply, but he reaches me and cups my face.
“I won’t be my father. I won’t cheat or lie, or abuse. I won’t be like my mother. They were terrible to each other, and they turned something that’s supposed to be beautiful into hate and ugliness. I thought if I felt love, I’d behave like they did. But love is a choice, and Ichooseto love you.”
Tears choke me as I look into his eyes and see the love shining in them. It’s the first time I’ve seen such strong emotion on his handsome face, and I can’t speak past the lump in my throat, so instead of trying to talk, I wrap my arms around him, take his lips with mine, and try to show him how I feel.
He pulls me in even closer, folding me into his arms and deepening the kiss for several long heartbeats before he draws back, a mixture of passion and adoration burning in his gaze. It’s more than I hoped to see.
“Don’t distract me, woman,” he says, though he doesn’t release his grasp on me. “I need to know how you feel.”
“I love you too,” I simply tell him. There’s no point in playing games or pretending this isn’t what I want. “I never thought I could love anyone. I thought I’d locked that part of me away from the world, and then you stormed in and messed up my so-called perfect life.” My voice breaks.
“I don’t want to mess up your life. That’s not how this is supposed to go, McKenzie.”
“Don’t worry, Byron. My life has been terrible. I didn’t see it until I met you. I didn’t realize I was living in a world of beige when right around the corner were exquisite colors waiting for me to discover. You make me feel emotions I’ve never felt before — good emotions — and I don’t want to let that go. I don’t want to live my life in fear, or even worse, live my life without any emotion at all.”
“Then we’ll grow together, McKenzie. We’ll learn how to trust and how to love to the fullest,” he promises. “And we’ll do it in each other’s arms.”
“I’ll take you up on that, Byron.”
I gasp when he lifts me into his arms. “What are you doing?”
“We’re going to celebrate somewhere a lot more private than this,” he says, and he starts carrying me down the hall and out of the building.
“Mmm, then hurry...”
I kiss his neck as he rushes to his car. After putting me down inside, he circles around quickly, jumps into the driver’s seat, and hauls me back into his arms.
“As long as you never stop doing that, Byron, I’ll be a happy woman.”
“I can only promise forever,” he tells me. And forever is all I’ll ask for.
Part Two
Tyler and Olivia
Prologue
Olivia
Age 10
“We’ll be best friends forever, right?”
Tyler Astor might only be thirteen, but I’ll always remember his silly grin. He gives it to me now, as his eyes meet my ten-year-old gaze, and he raises his eyebrow.
“I can’t be best friends with a girl,” he tells me with his youthful attempt at a scoff.
