Page 13 of Ruthless Love

She chews on her bottom lip before nodding. "I'd love that."

I pull her chin down, forcing our eyes to meet. "I'm going to prove to you I'm the one for you. It could take years, and we might get divorced, but I'm going to show you the type of man I can be."

Reaching forward, she cups my cheeks in her hands. "Cain Miller, you've always been the type of man that's one of the best. I just needed more, and I didn't even know what more meant. Not until I started reading the books that I have downstairs."

I want to hear all of this, figure out how reading romance opened her eyes. "Will you tell me?"

"Yeah." She nods. "I will, not today, but if you romance me the way I've asked you to in the past, I'll tell you everything."

I know how much those words cost her. "Alright, you can count on me. I'll put in the work, as long as you do too."

Her face buries in my neck before kissing against the thrum of my heartbeat there. "Consider it done. If you're willing to do it, then so am I. I won't pressure you, you don't pressure me, and we'll figure out if we can salvage this, or if we should let it go. Deal?"

Nosing over to where her lips are, I open them and steal a kiss. "Deal."

With a groan, I get up from her bed. I hate this part. I don't want to leave her. I'm not used to leaving her. I'venever been that person. It takes everything I have to hide my disappointment. I've never left her after we're done with sex. We've always cuddled and fallen asleep afterwards. This is the part I hate, the things I'm not used to. In time, I know they'll make sense, but right now, it all hurts. "I gotta be going. I have to be up early to meet you over here. What time do you open?"

She stretches, and the blanket she's pulled over her body slips, showing her nipples. Taking the opportunity, I lean in and take those hard nubs, one at a time, between my lips, sucking hard to give her something to remind her of me.

Her voice guttural, she lifts into my mouth, following my lips as I try to pull away. "We open at eight."

Letting her go with a loud noise, I answer. "Then I'll be here at seven forty-five, with some breakfast."

"Cain, you don't have to. You can come mid-afternoon to make sure you've gotten enough rest."

That she seems to be worried about my well-being gives me hope. "You should know by now that I'm used to not having much sleep. I'll be fine, I promise. I want to be here early so that when the adjustor gets here, they don't try to dick you around," I protest as I put my uniform pants and the t-shirt I wear under my uniform button-down on. Quickly, I stick my feet in my boots, but don't bother to tie them.

"Thanks, Cain. I really appreciate this."

"It doesn't matter where we're at." I reach over, grabbing her thigh in my hand. "I'm always going to love you. I've loved you since I was a teenager, and nothing will be stopping that any time soon, Ris."

Her eyes are wet as she looks at me. "I love you too, but we have a lot of ground to cover."

"I know. I'm willing to do the work, and I don't think that just because we've had tonight means that everything is fixed. I'mwell aware that it isn't. Just know I love you. I'm willing to work on this, and I'll be seeing you tomorrow."

She waves, her eyes a little sad. "I love you too, Cain. Be safe going home, I know people drive crazy this time of night."

"I will. See you tomorrow. Come lock the door behind me."

I slowly walk back into the kitchen, and grab my duty belt, securing it along my waist, and check that the safety on my gun is still on. She stumbles into the kitchen, her blanket wrapped around her. Coming over to where I am, she lifts on her tiptoes and drops a kiss on my lips. "Thank you for tonight, Cain."

I hug her tightly, lifting her off her feet before kissing her quickly. "No, thank you. I know we have a lot to work out, but tonight was fun."

She grins. "It was. I'll see you first thing in the morning."

"See ya." Telling her I love her is on the tip of my tongue, but I'm not sure how she'll react to it, so I keep it to myself.

The door closes when I leave, and I go down the stairs as slowly as possible. It feels as if I'm leaving her behind. The way she left me. I came home from shift and she wasn't there. I ran through the house looking for her until I found the note on the fridge. I'd dropped down in the kitchen with my ass to the floor and I cried.

The only time I ever cried like that was when my grandfather died. In that moment, it felt like my life was over. Thank God for Wyatt. If it hadn't been for him, I would've ended it not long after she left. I had no hope. He'd found me and called my dad. We've never been super close, but he's always been there for me when I needed him. Although he and my mom got divorced when I was in middle school, they've both been there for me, whenever I've needed them. They just couldn't figure out how to make it work with each other. Neither one of them gave me a good example of what a marriage should be, but they've done the best they can.

As I get to my SUV, I turn around and glance back up at the small apartment. It breaks my heart that I'm leaving and she's staying, but I understand that this was the first step both of us needed. Getting in, I start the SUV, put it in gear, and drive away. It's one of the hardest things I've ever had to do.

Halfway home, my phone rings. It's three am and my heartbeat increases, because nothing good happens after midnight. Looking at the caller ID, I notice it's my dad's number. My heart rate slows down. He gets up early because he's a delivery driver, and this isn't out of the norm. "Hello?"

"Hey Cain, just calling to make sure everything is okay. I saw your SUV parked in front of Enchanted Pages. Is Marissa okay?"

I love that he's worried about Marissa, even though he knows things are weird between us right now. "Yeah, there was an attempted break in. I was on-shift, so I went to check it out."

---