Blasphemous (Torn #3)(82)
I knelt next to him, hurting, too. “I love you, but he’s in here.” I rubbed a hand over my heart, choked up. “I’m in love with him, but I don’t want you waiting on me, Carter. If you really love me, you’ll at least try to move on.”
“How can you ask me to stop loving you when I don’t even know where it starts or where it ends? You’ve blinded me, Emma.”
“I have to see it until the end with him. I will never move on if I don’t. Regrets… I had so many with him. I have so many to make up. I owe him this last chance after what I put him through.”
“Then I’ll wait for you. Bass didn’t just have sex with another woman, Emma. He had both physical and emotional intimacy. You know more than anyone how hard it is to cut the emotional tie compared to the physical one.” He was teary before he crushed me in his arms. “I’m going to be here, waiting. Whether you come back to me or not, I will be here for you.”
“Please don’t—” I wiped his tears away. “Don’t do this to yourself, Carter.”
“I love you. That’s all I know right now and I’m telling you that I will be here, to pick you back up when you’re down and crying your eyes out.”
“Carter—”
“Go now, Em, before I change my mind about letting you go.”
I kissed him, my tears falling to the floor. “I love you. Thank you.”
“I love you, Emma.”
Chapter 33
“I have found the paradox, that if you love until it hurts, there can be no more hurt, only more love.”
- Mother Teresa
Bass
“What are you doing here? I thought we were meeting up tomorrow?” Emma asked.
“I had to see you since I had a feeling that you would see him. You were with him, weren’t you?” I had to ask, even if my entire gut was telling me that she was.
All of my insecurities came crashing down the second I heard a male voice call out her name like she was his sun. It took me a good second before I rushed out of my house, gunning down the 101 Freeway, swerving through traffic to get here, fast.
The snake wasn’t going to take what was mine, over my dead body.
She nodded, wiping her tears. “Yeah… I was with Carter.”
What’s with the tears? Were they for me? Did that mean… that she changed her mind after she saw Carter? f*uking hell.
“It was always him. For once, choose me. Make me your man, Emma.” I cupped her cheeks, pleading, losing my composure, a breath away from breaking. “My heart only ever knew you. It’s always been you—right now, yesterday, tomorrow and forever—it’s you.”
“I already did! What are you blabbering about? I was saying goodbye to him.” She sniffed as I hugged her tighter, beyond relieved at her confession. “He’s hurting, Bass.”
f*uking hell. That was the worst sixty minutes of my life, I thought as I held the only thing that mattered to me. “Forgive me, Emma. I’m so sorry for letting you go. We wouldn’t be in this position if I had given you another chance. I could’ve saved us a lot of hurt.”
“I know, but what’s done is done. We’re already here and there’s nowhere else to go except to move forward,” she whispered against my neck, kissing it softly. “I can endure a lot of things, Bass, but if you break my heart again, not only will I break yours, but I’ll make sure it doesn’t beat again.”
Pulling her slightly away, facing her as I cupped her cheek, I simply couldn’t help gushing when my heart contracted at the sight of her with me again. There were times in the last week that I would wake up in the middle of the night, reaching out next to me just to make sure she really was there, making sure she wasn’t just a dream. “You’re passionate nature matches mine. Your promise reflects my own. If something was to happen, it’s comforting to know that your dead heart will be intertwined with my lifeless one,.” I vowed with ferocity. “My heart for yours, Emma.”
“My heart for yours,” she whispered before sealing the promise.
Dead or alive, our hearts were destined as one.
Chapter 34
Blasphemous Premier
“For it was not into my ear you whispered, but into my heart. It was not my lips you kissed, but my soul.”
- Judy Garland
Emma
My parents, bless them, couldn’t come out tonight and, frankly, I was relieved. I knew they were proud of me, but I’d rather that they didn’t see movies that had me exposing my breasts.
They surprised me earlier when they came out to see me in Bass’s home. He was so sneaky that I hadn’t known he had already spoke to my parents. Apparently, he took the call when he knew it was my mother calling. Since they didn’t want to attend the premier, Bass invited them for lunch instead. He cooked while talking to my parents, entertaining them with his cheeseball jokes and, yeah, him with an apron on—working that sharp knife, chopping away like a pro—was damn sexy.
My parents were sold when they saw how Bass treated me. I suppose it really was the only thing that mattered to a parent, seeing their child with someone who cherished her the way the parents did.