Choosing Us (Pierced Hearts Duet #1)(34)

“Since when is anything fair to us? I take care of you because I can, because I want to, because one day, we won’t live in this bullshit, and you’ll always know I took care of you because I lo—” I stopped myself. This wasn’t how I envisioned the night going down. Not by a longshot. I rubbed the back of my neck, my muscles tensed immediately. “Bailey, you know that shit doesn’t matter to me. It’s money. You, matter to me.”

Her deep stare was so penetrating, so intense, that I couldn’t break it. I couldn’t move my eyes from hers even if I wanted to, and I didn’t want to. I never did. The times with Bailey, whether good or bad, were the only ones I had to look back on when I needed a sense of hope.

A sense of belonging.

When I needed love.

When I just needed…

Her.

“Come on.” I nodded toward the faint glow of lights in the distance. Smiling back at her, breaking the sudden tension between us. “We’re almost there.”

“This isn’t over.”

“Yes, it is.”

Before she could reply, I started walking the uneven ground again, tugging her behind me. I spent all my money, from working jobs that paid me under the table, on this surprise and didn’t think twice about it. I wanted her to have this special moment, to see it, to feel it, for her to experience Christmas for once in her life.

It didn’t take long until we approached a small clearing where the snow continued to raise beneath our feet. The look on her face the second she saw I had turned part of the woods into a winter wonderland was the only gift I needed this Christmas.

“Aiden, I can’t believe you did this,” she whispered, completely caught off guard. Her eyes shifted from all the colorful lights strung around the trees, to the makeshift Christmas tree I found thrown away on a curb. Decorated with soda cans and string lights. To the plastic snowman I found thrown away on another curb.

I watched her walk around the open space, grazing her bare fingers along the lights with a beaming smile on her face. Twirling around as the snow fell upon her. Bailey captivated me all the time, consuming me with her beauty, her quirks, her loving personality that shined through since we were young.

Making her presence known whether she realized it or not. Part of me knew she was conscious of the effect she had on me. It didn’t matter what she was doing, my eyes followed her everywhere, constantly waiting for her to do something else that would make me fall in love with her just a little bit more.

There was no one else in this world like Bailey, and I knew that the second I laid eyes on her almost seven years ago.

Sometimes I would watch her from across the room and just the vision of her left me breathless. She was turning into a beautiful young woman. There was nothing left to resemble the scared little girl, who hid with me in the closets of the shithole homes we were placed in.

“Aiden, don’t let your mind go there,” she stated, bringing my thoughts back to the present. Placing her cold hand on my warm cheek. You see, she had the ability to see right through me too.

“Just thinking about your pretty face.”

She rolled her eyes. “Mmm hmm.” Knowing I was lying. “For someone who always wants me to be honest, you should follow your own advice.”

“You want honesty, Bay? That’s what you’re looking for?”

“Always.”

“Well then, look up.”

She did. Realizing there was a wrapped gift dangling from the tree branch we were standing under.

“Oh, come on. This was enough. You didn’t have to get me something too.”

“That’s my gift.”

She cocked her head to the side. “You got yourself a present for me to open?”

I grinned. “Open the gift, Bailey.”

She eyed me skeptically then did just that. Jerking back when she realized what it was. “Aiden, why did you—”

Before the next word left her mouth, I gripped onto the back of her neck and pulled her to me.

They say the smallest decisions can change your life forever.

I would eternally remember this moment for the rest of my days. This was the instant that changed everything between us. Exactly the way I wanted it to.

Standing right then and there, under the mistletoe I wrapped for her.

I rasped, “To kiss you,” against her lips. “I don’t see myself when I’m with you because all I ever see… is you, Bay.”

Not knowing what the fuck I was doing, I kissed her with everything I had inside of me. Making her knees buckle and my heart pound. I sought out her tongue, and she moaned in my mouth as both of my hands found the sides of her face and her hands found my hair, pulling at it almost instantly.

The taste of her.

The warmth, the need, the longing to make her mine.

The sensation of her pouty lips while framing her face I adored so goddamn much. My hands found their way down her body, and I wanted nothing more than to keep going, but not here.

Not like this.

This kiss would have to be enough to hold me over until the time was right to prove she was made just for me and only me.

Our lips devoured each other, both of us making a memory to take with us, not knowing when another chance would come along again where we could feel whole in one another’s love. I wish I could describe the intensity I found myself going through with her in my arms. Only I couldn’t even do it justice. I couldn’t even put it into words what was in my heart.