Page 60 of Hers To Keep

Ace is the only person I can turn to. The only place I want to be after everything that’s happened is here with him.How fucked up does that make me?

His hands move back up to cup my face between them as he pulls me closer, our noses rubbing gently against one another. I ache to have my lips on his. “How can I make you see that everything I do is for you,” he whispers quietly against my lips. “I’ve had to sacrifice myself, my soul, and my fucking sanity to make sure he stays away from you, and I will continue to do so. To repent, to apologize, to beg for your absolute forgiveness for my part in all and everything that’s happened to you.”

“That’s what I’m trying to tell you, Ace. We shouldn’t have to sacrifice everything that we are for love. We keep making sacrifices to protect those around us, to protect each other, but where the fuck has it gotten us? Absolutely nowhere. We’re worse off. Wesley threatens me daily, things you don’t even know of. You’re not protecting me from him, you never will be able to.” I break free from his hold, quickly standing and moving toward the window overlooking the wavering ocean below and gray skies that threaten to consume us in complete darkness.

Ace stands and follows me, his hot breath felt against the skin of my exposed nape. “I won’t give up until he’s destroyed, I won’t stop fighting for you until my last breath. If I have to burn with the devil to make sure you, my angel, are spared, then that’s what I’ll do.” He softly places his hands upon my shoulders but removes them instantly when I flinch at his calloused touch.

I turn to him, my tears now free falling helplessly against my cheeks. “I can’t, Ace, please don’t make me do this. I can’t fucking take it. My heart can’t handle this much pain. I’m falling apart,crumbling before you. Can’t you see?” I babble helplessly, “Every day another piece of me dies, and I don’t know how much is left. I’m tired of finding out new secrets, of being threatened time and time again.”

He closes the space between us, the room around us now a black hole trying to swallow us, but he’s the only thing I see. His lips are merely an inch from mine, but he doesn’t move to touch me. He just hovers over me, staring down at my lips as I lightly bite down on my bottom one. Bright blue eyes dilate with desire, with a desperate need as they look back up at mine.

“I know how you feel whether or not you admit it to yourself. I can sense it when I’m here with you. When my lips touch yours, when my heart––”

In that exact moment, I break. The look in his eyes, the one that I know mirrors what I feel in mine, tears whatever fragile string holding the rest of my sanity together. It snaps and I don’t hold back.

“Of course I fucking love you!” I shout, eagerly taking his lips in mine. Our mouths crash together in a wave of desperate need and undeniable passion. I kiss him fervently, with all the anger and frustration of everything that’s occurred, with all the hope and longing for the words he spoke to me, for the feelings he declared to me. Our lips tangle helplessly, dancing like they have so many times before, remembering the rhythm they’ve learned to love.

Because that’s what this is… love. Vulnerable, intense, and fucking irrevocable. His tongue enters my mouth, swirling around eager to taste every inch of mine, while his teeth graze against mine—their chattering sending chills through me. I pull away, letting him go for a moment, frantically gasping for a breath as I speak against his swollen lips.

“How can I not love you? Everything about you pushes me to feel things I’ve never felt before. To do things I’ve never thought myself capable of doing. To fight, but I shouldn’t. I’ve fought so hard to get rid of this ache in my heart for you, because I don’tdeserve to feel so much fucking pain. And you don’t deserve it, you don’t deserve my love. All you’ve ever done is try to break me, hurt me, lie to me, betray me. You’re a monster, a murderer––”

“How many times do I have to tell you I didn’t kill him,” he yells out, harshly gripping my face, once again taking my mouth in a forceful kiss, but I pull away, the fury of his denial burning like a blazing fire consuming me in its blistering rage.

“Ace, I know what I saw! I can’t unsee it. God, I’ve tried, but every time I lay down to sleep, when I close my eyes, I hear it. I see it play out in front of me so vividly. The gun in your hand, the sound of the gunshot, and his body falling before your feet.”

“It wasn’t my gun that went off!” he insists, his hands once again restlessly gripping his tousled blond hair.

“Then whose was it?” I ask, hoping for once the truth will come from his very own lips. The lips that spew venom against mine, but make it taste like the sweetest of poisons. Intoxicatingly fatal. “You refuse to tell me who the man in the red cloak was. If it was he who killed Chaz, then please tell me who it was?”

“I can’t, Scarlett,” he says, his face changing from exasperated to solemn. “I wish I could, but I can’t. The truth would break you even more than I already have. Besides, you wouldn’t believe me even if I did.”

I laugh tensely at his blatant denial, at his continuing betrayals. “Then what’s left for me to think? You’re doing this to us, Ace. You’re choosing to continue this detrimental pattern, this toxic habit we’ve grown accustomed to. You’re the one stopping us from being together because you will always choose this world before me. You will always choose him first.”

He pushes me back firmly against the window, his hand moving down to grip the exposed skin above my waist, while his other one moves to grab the back of my neck tugging me into him. His mouth is so close to mine, his breathing irregular, and his eyes darkening with every word he speaks.

“I need you to trust me, Red. I need you to go againsteverything your heart and mind are telling you and have faith in us. Fight for me, fight for us because I won’t stop. I’m stubborn. I’m ruthless. I’ve done so many things I regret, things that repulse me. But none of those things is loving you. I won’t stop until I make everything right. I won’t stop until I prove to you I’m worthy of you, worthy of your love. You’re an angel, my Goddess, and I’m a devil just like him. Damaged and condemned but you are my redemption. And that’s all I have left. My only hope, my divine intervention.”

With one last kiss, he walks away from me, step by step until he vanishes, leaving me alone with the ache in my heart vibrating through me. He’s asked me to trust him, but I’m not sure I can.

I tried to fight the magnetic pull that dragged me to him. I pushed him away. I fought him every chance I got. I challenged his every move, but in the end it didn’t work. Every day I fell harder and harder for him, and there is only one explanation.

It finally happened.

I’ve finally lost my mind.

Chapter

Thirty-Three

ACE

Her words cut deep into my soul. The fear in them, the helplessness in them, the doubt she has in me.How could she trust me when all I’ve done is let her down?

Time and time again, I’ve lied to her, withheld information, and I continue to do so.How can I make her see that if she were to find out everything, it would not only put her life in even more danger than she already finds herself, but it would break her apart completely?

She can’t even imagine the depth of my uncle’s corruption, but he’s not the only villain out there. There is another evil that threatens to possess her. A more extreme force, more volatile and immoral.

Yet for now, I must work on destroying the evil which is a more prominent threat. My blood, my Uncle Wesley. In order to do so, I’ll need help. The only one who’d understand is my best friend, my brother, my right-hand man, Sebastian Silver.

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