Fighting Solitude (On The Ropes #3)(50)

When my eyes dried, he released my mouth long enough to climb from the ring with me still securely held against his chest.

Ten minutes later, the gym had been locked, my car had been moved to the back parking lot, and I was in the passenger’s seat of his car on our way back to our apartment.

There was no more discussion.

The radio was blaring on the way home, but with the truth of my deception hanging between us, it was the most frightening silence I would ever experience.





I KEPT MY HAND ANCHORED to her thigh on the drive home. I was afraid that it was the only thing keeping her from disconnecting from me all over again.

“Every. Single. Day.”

Her words echoed through my mind.

When she’d made that announcement in the ring, I’d felt like I’d taken the worst beating I could ever experience within those ropes. How had I never seen that she was in love with me? With the exception of our drunken night, she had never been flirty. But, then again, I wasn’t sure I would have noticed. We lived together. So it wasn’t like she had to go out of her way to spend extra time with me. She didn’t have to make up reasons to stay up late bullshitting with me or text me just to say hi twelve times a day. That was expected in our relationship.

She didn’t have to think of creative ways to touch me. She had always been a hugger. I didn’t count how often her arms found their way around me. I just loved it when they did.

I was a funny motherf*cker, so of course she laughed at my jokes.

We spoiled each other with gifts every chance we got. And, well, Liv just spoiled me in general.

There hadn’t been a chance to flirt. But maybe that was what our relationship had been all along, and precisely why I’d missed all the signs.

“Every. Single. Day.”

Fourteen years.

Fourteen years she had experienced the torture I had been living for the last four months. I couldn’t imagine how she had lasted that long.

Maybe there had been subtle clues I should have seen.

The way she dropped her entire life to make sure mine was running smoothly.

The way she took care of me as if the small things like the way I ate or if I was getting enough rest mattered more than anything else.

The way I knew without a shadow of a doubt that she would always be there for me. Unconditionally. Forever.

Okay, so maybe they hadn’t been so subtle and I was just a blind dumbass.

“Every. Single. Day.”

God. She loved me.

When we arrived at our apartment, I folded her hand in mine and walked up the sidewalk. She didn’t try to stop me, but she didn’t exactly tuck into my side the way I would have liked, either.

I unlocked and opened the door. Then I paused before walking inside.

“Nothing changes,” I whispered, bending to kiss her forehead.

Her eyes closed, but it wasn’t in rapture. Her lids were pained, and when they fell, it set off a chain reaction, crumbling her face all the way down to her chin.

“Right,” she smarted.

“Stop and listen to me. Everything is absolutely going to change between us. But that’s just the details. Me and you. We don’t change. Ever. When we walk through this door, we aren’t going back to the f*cked-up lie of friendship we’ve been living. We start the real us. We go to bed naked and wake up kissing. But that is the only shit that changes.” I lifted her hand to my chest, settling it over my heart. “This doesn’t change. It’s you and me to the core. I’m not going anywhere, and neither are you. If it happens to you, it happens to me, remember? And this is definitely happening to us. Please don’t fight it.”

Her big, brown eyes lifted to mine. “This is weird.”

I smiled. “Get used to it. It’s going to get a whole lot weirder when we get in the shower.”

Her cheeks blushed, but not in a shy way. It was heated, and it said that she didn’t think the shower would be all that weird, either. She was struggling, but the way she still sparked for me spoke wonders.

Brushing my nose against hers, I teased her lips. “Nothing comes between us. No matter where this goes. Or how it goes. Or how many times I make you come.” I paused to smirk. “We don’t change, Rocky.”

“Okay.”

“Say it.”

“We don’t change.” She didn’t sound convinced, but I heard her promise.

And, if Liv knew me at all, she felt mine banging in my chest.

We would never change.

I wouldn’t accept it any other way.

She was the one woman I’d never be able to survive losing.

I found that out the hard way when I was thirteen years old.

I sure as hell wouldn’t allow it to happen again.

Releasing her, I ushered her through our front door for what felt like the first time.

A beginning.

An end.

A brand-new start.

The way it should have been all along.

The door had barely clicked when I pushed her up against the wall and crushed my mouth over hers. Her eyes were wide with surprise, but her hands wrapped around my neck and slid into my hair.

Her moans reverberated in my mouth, and her agile tongue dueled with mine—my cock responding to every twist.

“Welcome home,” I mumbled. Taking both of her hands, I tugged them around my hips and then placed them on my ass. “Where ass-grabbing is now a requirement.”