Undeniably Yours (Torn, #3.5)(32)

“Hey! Don’t condemn the person who only speaks the truth.” I was trying to hide a smile, but it was hard to do.

She gave me a death glare. “Are you insinuating that my vagina is a Basswhore?”

Oooh, I liked that nickname. A lot. Emma the Basswhore, more like it.

“Only whore to me and no other man’s, Emma.” She was definitely my whore.

Rolling her eyes at me, she tsk-tsked. “Yep, you are cocky, indeed.”

The rest of the afternoon was spent enjoying each other’s company. I brought one of my favorite aged paperback collections and read her a poem from one of my favorite poets. A Lemon by Pablo Neruda. Love poems through his eyes and words were more lyrical because the man had been a hopeless romantic.

Love cannot be fathomed or described by a person who hasn’t experienced the kind that people would kill for; the kind where people died weeks after the other’s passing. Experience was key to great knowledge and that man, to me, had it in spades.

In my mind, I named this the Lemon Island.

Lemons—the scent, the fruit, the color—would always be associated with this beautiful memory.

A symbol of a very important turning point of my life. Who knew lemons were going to be that significant to me? I smiled at the thought.





I Live For You and You Alone

Almost a year later after Blasphemous

Los Angeles

Emma yawned, stretching after she ravished the entire portion of double chocolate cake. “I missed this,” she sighed, staring at the stars before glancing at me. “And I’ve definitely missed you.”

She had just started school again, and I had been busy with work. We hadn’t seen each other in two weeks and yet; it felt like I hadn’t seen her in a lifetime. “Good to know I’ve been missed.” It was more than good. In fact, I was relieved. A part of me was actually terrified that she might up and leave me because the going was getting tough… and it was getting tougher by the day.

Greece. Filming. Carter. Break-up. Jealousy. Heartbreak. Blasphemous. Nikki. Carter again. Getting back together… and now, we’d come back to where we’d both begun getting to know each other. My patio, stargazing, talking and sharing stories while we spent some quality time together.

The past months had been shitload after shitload of volatile trials. Even after Nikki, the woman who I had a fling with during filming and the consequences that had come after it; Emma was still by my side.

She loved me, I knew that, but even if the entire world knew about our relationship, Carter hadn’t withdrawn his interest in her. In fact, it was only last week that I heard him say he loved her while we were on a video call. You see, Emma was in the kitchen when everyone flooded in from his recent game, and the dick hadn’t cared that Emma was talking to her boyfriend because he daringly went straight to her and kissed her on the cheek before saying those three words, while I was there, witnessing it all happen.

He was messing with my brain and confidence, and no matter how much I tried to push the worry aside; it remained there… taunting me. Emma, of course, apologized for his behavior, but it wasn’t her place to do that and I told her so.

Normally, I’d have gone ballistic and I was. Inside, I was raging with fury. Yet, I had to keep my temper in check, stretching my limits to understand “his situation” because he was in love with my woman.

There wasn’t a day that passed that I didn’t regret letting Emma go. Those eight months alone were barren, but what was worse was that it practically drove Emma back to him… and me having a fling. It was a gargantuan mistake that was weighing heavily on my chest, knowing that Nikki was going to milk every damn opportunity to drive a wedge between Emma and me.

The unfortunate events had been rolling with unstoppable force. Even with all this worry, there was stress added by my parents, hectic work schedule… one thing remained the same.

I was in love with Emma. Even more so now.

Not a day had passed that my love hadn’t grown. Our love was one of my life’s goals to nourish and I would die trying to make sure that it remained that way.

Reaching out for the remote, I switched it on to play sounds of nature; the sound of the waves in particular. The one sound we’d heard all summer long where we fell in love, deeply and irrevocably, with each other.

When I heard her sigh in contentment, I got up from the rattan lounge chair and rounded my way towards her.

Happiness ignited inside me as I watched her relaxed form. To this day, Emma still managed to take my breath away. Eyes bright, heart so full of life, I looked down on her face with love and affection.

“Dance with me.” My hand reached out, offering it to her.

She gave me a look of remembrance of our night together when I’d asked her to dance after she’d gotten back from London. With a loving smile, she got up, took charge and led us next to the fireplace. Wrapping her arms around my neck, she gave me a passionate kiss, breaking it only to whisper softly against my lips, “I remember it just like it was yesterday.”

Greece was marked in our hearts. It was our place. The land where our hearts would forever call home.

“Close your eyes, my love,” I softly demanded, kissing the tip of her nose. “Don’t open them until I tell you.” When she did as I asked, I pressed my check against hers, closing my own as we both were transported back in time. “Listen to my heart; it still and only will ever beat for you. We’ve come a long way, but I just want you to know that I’m the same man you fell in love with, the same man who held you as we danced in the moonlight.” Her heart rapidly thudded against my chest. “With each passing day, my love for you only ever increases. Times are changing. Our trials aren’t going away soon, but you must know one thing, you can always count on me to be your man.” Kissing her cheek before I softly kissed her parted lips, I whispered, “Happy anniversary, Emma.”