Erasing Faith(95)

I opened my mouth to argue, but he cut me off.

“Truth number two: you and I drive each other crazy. We fight constantly, we push each other’s boundaries, and we’re probably more likely to kill each other than go more than a day without screaming our heads off. But that fire between us — it’s hot and it’s real and I couldn’t fabricate it if I tried. Neither could you. The only time you’re not yelling at me is when your mouth is pressed hard against mine, which seems to piss you off but, frankly, doesn’t bother me a damn bit.”

I huffed.

“Truth number three: I don’t know where you’ve been for the past three years because, if I did, we’d have been having this conversation a whole lot sooner. I don’t know who you’ve been with or what you’ve done to occupy your time, but I do know one thing.” He leaned closer and made sure to annunciate every word so I couldn’t possibly tune him out. “You’ve been hiding, Red. But not because you were scared I’d come looking for you. No — you were scared of what you knew would happen between us when I did.”

Every bit of saliva evaporated from my mouth as I processed those words, recognizing the truth in them even as I tried to conjure a denial. I pulled in a shaky breath.

“That’s not true…” I muttered weakly.

He paid me no attention.

“Truth number four: I didn’t give a damn about you when we first met. It wasn’t personal — I’d never really given a damn about anyone before. But from the moment you fell into my arms in Heroes’ Square and started talking a million miles a minute, you began to change me into someone different. Someone better.” His hands came up and he braced himself against the wall, his arms caging me in. Still, not an inch of his body touched mine. I pressed my eyes closed, hoping it would help me stay in control.

“Truth number five,” he whispered. A tremble moved through my entire body. “This is my last one, Red, so pay attention.”

I somehow managed to open my eyes and look up into his, which were so full of passion and candor, I couldn’t doubt his feelings were genuine. I’d called him a liar, but here he was — finally telling me the truth. I had no idea what my own expression held in that long, breathless moment as I waited for his last confession.

He leaned closer, eyes locked on mine.

“It might’ve started as a lie, Faith, but it sure as hell didn’t end as one. I might not have been real to you, and that’s fine. But you have to know… you were real to me.” His voice dropped so low, I could barely hear him. “It was real for me. It’s still real. The realest f*cking thing I’ve ever felt.”

My eyes started to water and I felt pressure building inside my chest, like my heart was about to burst. I didn’t think I could take much more of this without falling to pieces.

His gaze scanned my face as he spoke.

“I was alone, for twenty-five years. And I didn’t give a shit, because I didn’t know what I was missing.” His eyes went soft around the edges when he saw mine filling with tears. “Then, this stubborn, beautiful f*cking brunette came barreling into my life and shoved her way through all the shadows. She lit up my whole world, even when I told her not to. Even when I warned her to stay away. No matter what I did, I couldn’t shake her.”

I stared into his eyes for a long, frozen fraction of time as he waited for me to say something.

“She sounds a little overbearing,” I whispered finally, my voice breaking as the first tears escaped down my cheeks.

“Oh, she is,” he said gently. “It’s one of the things I love most about her.”

I felt my jaw drop a little as those words — words I’d been dreaming about hearing him say for years — escaped his mouth. A flood of fresh tears flowed down my face as I stared up at him with love and longing in my eyes, waiting for him to lean down and kiss me. When a few long seconds passed and he didn’t move, I finally realized that he wasn’t going to.

He was leaving it in my hands. Giving me the choice.

I was the one who’d have to close that final sliver of distance between us.

“I still think you’re an arrogant ass,” I said, stretching up onto my tiptoes.

“That’s okay,” he breathed across my lips. “You’re still spoiled brat.”

I grinned as I hurled my body forward and slammed my mouth against his.





Chapter Fifty-Three: FAITH


A VOW



We collided, the impact of my body against his sending shockwaves through us both, like two planets crossing paths mid-orbit, causing casualties on both sides. An embrace of mutually-assured destruction.

His mouth crashed against mine, a kiss three years in the making, and it destroyed us both.

It was devastating.

Our lips clung and gasped and parted and devoured until I felt little pieces of myself stripping away like useless, crumbled debris. He kissed me and I wasn’t Fae Montgomery, the girl I’d fabricated from the tattered wreckage of my hopes and dreams. The facade I’d spent three years building split wide open and crumbed into dust until all that was left behind was me. The real me.

Faith.

His hands lifted me roughly, hurriedly, like he couldn’t find control enough to keep himself in check now that we’d finally collided. My legs wrapped around his waist and his body pressed mine into the wall so hard, ripples of pain shot up my spine.