Page 53 of A Constant Love

“You don’t have to be sorry, baby. I just want you to think of my money as a resource…not a disease.”

She laughed. “Okay, I’ll try.”

“Oh, and Kansas? If our kids don’t work hard enough to get into college on their own, then that’s just tough shit on them. We aren’t donating a new building to a college just so they can go party for four years.”

That got a loud chuckle from her. “Okay.” She turned to me. “You really think we will have kids someday?’

“Fuck yeah. With our smarts and good looks, it would be a disservice to humanity to not reproduce.” I shot her a wink.

“And maybe they’ll end up with all of their father’s modesty,” she replied sarcastically.

“And maybe their mother’s sarcasm as well,” I grinned.

“Hey Ty, can I ask you one more thing?”

“Anything.”

“What was the girl name that Tess gave you while you were playing dress up tea-party?”

Instinctively, my mouth opened to answer as she tried to catch me off guard, but my head snapped quickly to look at her. “Nice try, Kansas. And remind me to burn that picture when we go back to the house upstate.”

She laughed and rolled her eyes and went back to sunbathing. Meanwhile, I couldn’t help but wonder what it would be like if Sam and I really ever did have kids…or should I say what it would be like when Sam and I had kids because I had no doubt in my mind that she was the woman I wanted to spend the rest of my life with.

We’d have to overcome this James bullshit though. I felt like Sam would never be ready to truly move forward with us until he left her alone. She had told me the texts from him had stopped, so I thought maybe his interest in her was waning.

God, I hoped so. I wanted her to be able to live her life free of fear and the demons of her past. I decided that when we arrived home, I would call my private detective and see what he had found out. It had been weeks with no results, and I was about at my breaking point.

Chapter 31 - Sam

The next day, we were on the plane heading back to our lives in Boston. I wasn’t exactly thrilled about that fact, but at least we still had a few more days off school before things returned to complete chaos.

I wished we could have stayed on that island forever. If we had, I wonder if James still would have come after me. Probably. He was too much of a sadist to let me go.

My eyes drifted over to the luscious man sleeping next to me. Mason had climbed up in the seat next to him and had his head laying in Tyler’s lap, fast asleep as well.

I should have probably been resting too, considering I probably wouldn’t get much once we got home, but my mind just couldn’t seem to shut itself off. A million thoughts whirled through my head, but there was one that I kept coming back to.

I was so damn lucky to have found Tyler Wendell. Well, I was so damn lucky that he found me.

Over the past six months, he had shown me what it was like to be loved by a real man. He showed me that it was okay to be who I was without feeling guilty about it. He showed me how to believe in myself again.

And to my utter surprise, when Tyler told me he wanted children with me in the future, I didn’t freak out. My pulse didn’t rise at the mere mention of kids or commitment. Instead, something else replaced that sense of dread.

Excitement.

Excitement for a future with my best friend. Excitement to do monotonous things like go grocery shopping and plant a garden out back. Excitement to take those next big steps with him by my side.

To make any of those things happen though, I had to get rid of my James problem. There was no way Tyler and I could move forward with him still stalking me. He’d kill me before he would let me live out my fairytale ending.

Despite my resolve to not think about James on our trip, my mind was still churning thinking of a plan on how to expose him for who he really was. I don’t know if the relaxing ocean waves were good for opening my mind (or maybe it was the countless orgasms I had), but the pieces were starting to come together.

It was time to remind James of who Sam Flemming really was and what she was capable of because apparently, he had forgotten. He was going to get a big wake-up call when he realized I was no longer that scared, timid girl he beat and raped all those years ago.

No. Now, I had something to fight for…something to live for. And it was time to stop living under someone else’s control. He controlled me when we were together, and it seemed as though he never stopped.

I’d had enough.

When we got home, I turned my phone back on, figuring I would have a slew of angry messages from James. But I didn’t. There was just one. One message with one little word.

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