Page 46 of Wanted

~28~

Sara

Soft rapping on the front door tore me from sleep. Looking overat my alarm clock, I saw it was eight in the morning. There was no doubt in mymind who it was. He’d technically given me the night to think things over, so Icouldn’t be too upset with him.

As I headed toward the front room, thoughts of the previous nightbombarded me. To think, the only thing I was nervous about was being set up ona blind date. Never in a million years did I imagine Alek being one of theowners of Verdana, let alone seeing him there then ending up having sex withhim in the bathroom. Granted, it was extraordinary, but still one of thebiggest shockers of my life thus far.

I took a quick breath as my fingers clutched the handle. Pullingthe door open, I was hit with his presence, so powerful and a bit overwhelming.As I looked him over from head to toe, my eyes instantly flew to his face. Morespecifically to his eye.

Reaching for his hand, I pulled him inside. “What the hellhappened to your face?” I asked, rushing toward the freezer to grab an icepack. Wrapping the compress in a towel, I walked back over to him and gentlypressed it to his face. His hand covered mine as we both held it to his eye. Theconnection wasn’t lost on me, but I pushed it aside for the time being.

I stood in front of him, waiting for him to answer me, mycuriosity killing me the longer he remained silent. Finally, he spoke up.

“Cameron.” One word and I knew it was pretty bad. The onlyevidence Alek had was a black eye and a small cut in the corner of his mouth. Icould only imagine what his cousin looked like.

“Oh, my God, Alek. What happened?” I asked, ushering him towardthe couch to take a seat.

“I don’t really want to talk about it.”Wrong answer.The look on my face said as much. If there was anyhope for us, I needed him to tell me everything, even when he didn’t want to. “Sorry,”he grumbled before he regaled me with the entire story.

I couldn’t say I didn’t see it coming sooner or later. Reliefwashed over me I wasn’t there to witness it, though. Watching two grown men gotoe-to-toe, especially when one of them was Alek, was too much for me to handle.

Taking his hand away from his face, he placed the ice pack on thetable beside the couch. Silence fell between us as we continued to stare ateach other.

“Sara,” he started. “I came here to end our separation. I made a hugemistake, and I fully intend on making things right between us again.” Scootingcloser, he placed his warm palm on my thigh. “I promise I’ll never hurt youagain.” He looked down at his lap. “Please, forgive me.”

I hooked my finger under his chin and coaxed his head to look up.Normally, I was the one averting my eyes from him, not the other way around. Knowinghis heart was breaking, the fear in his stare telling me he was afraid I wasn’tgoing to give us another chance was enough for me to move toward him and placemy lips against his.

My one small gesture was what he was yearning for. Expelling aquick rush of air, he stood from the couch, reached forward and tangled hishand with mine. Once I was standing in front of him, he pulled me into hisembrace, burrowing his face into the crook of my neck. I heard him inhale andknew he was trying to breathe in as much of me as he could, afraid I would backaway from him any minute.

“I love you,” he whispered in my ear. His body tensed as hewaited for me to say something. Anything.

Drawing away from him, I saw his face fall until he heard mywords. “I love you, too, Alek. Sometimes more than I want to, but I do.”

All fear and reservation floated away from him as he smiled wideand crushed me to him. Peppering kisses all over my face causing me to laugh. “Iswear, baby, never again. Never again will I make you cry.” He kissed thesensitive spot under my ear. “Never again will I make you doubt my love foryou.” Gently biting down on my lobe sent a pulse of pleasure straight throughme. “Never again will I make you angry.”

Still smothered in his embrace, I called him out on his lie. “Now,you knowthatone’s not true.” Weboth laughed at his choice of words.

“Okay, how about this? Never again will I purposely make youangry.” I furrowed my brow. “Okay, I’ll try again. How about I’ll do my best totake your thoughts and feelings into consideration before I place any crazy demandson you?” I smiled. “Better?” he asked, still snuggling me into his body.

“Better,” I replied.

After hours ofcatching up,we talked late into the evening. He explained in better detail his reasoningfor pushing me away, as well as his interaction with Cora and his fight withCameron. He vowed to never lie to me again and to always come to me first withanything that was bothering him before he made any life-altering decisions.

After listening to everything he had to say, I understood him alittle more than I had before. Obviously, some of his decisions were wrong andI made sure to tell him so, to which he simply replied, “I know. I know.”

There was a lot we still had to work out, but I finally agreed togive him his third and final chance.

~29~

Sara

Tap. Tap. Tap.

What is that noise? Is itraining?

Still lost in a haze of bliss and sleep, my brain took extra timeto catch on to what was going on around me.

Tap. Tap. Tap.

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