Page 88 of Bound to You

I can’t really complain though, not when my girl is curled up under a blanket, leaning into me, her vanilla scent washing over me with every movement.

I still haven’t figured out where that comes from.

“Why do you like watching these so much?”

“I don’t know really,” she looks up at me. “I like it when they find out their motive, I like to know why they did it.”

“Why?”

She shrugs. “Dunno, it’s just interesting.”

I shake my head, laughing as she focuses back on the tv where the detective is explaining a new lead.

She settles into my side, her head resting on my shoulder, and I can’t help but feel like this is so right. Like she’s meant to be here with me. Like this apartment was void of life before she showed up.

Like I was.

And it’s starting to freak me out. Well, not starting, I’ve been feeling like this for a while now.

I am no closer to knowing if Isla is thinking about staying here than I was the first day that she showed up.

She seems to feel at home here, it doesn’t feel like a honeymoon period to me. It feels real, it feels like everything I was missing, but I don’t know if she feels the same way, and I’m too afraid to ask. Too afraid to find out the answer.

“What was it like for you,” I’m dragged out of my mind by her words, and I notice the tv is off and her popcorn abandoned as she faces me. “Moving here I mean.”

“Moving here was…hard.”

She pulls the blanket up to her chin, settling in without taking her eyes from mine.

“I didn’t know anyone. I had never met Vanessa before. My parents hadn’t seen her since she moved here in her twenties, so I was lost. I found this place for sale, and it just felt right. Like it was something that I could make my own. A way that I could prove to my parents that I could do it.

“I poured my everything into this hotel, all of the money that I had, all of my soul. I didn’t care about anything or anyone just this. I met people along the way of course, Nora, and the D’Angelo’s welcomed me with open arms, but I still felt deep down like I had something to prove. When I finally finished it, I was so proud of myself. I sent the grand opening invitations to my parents back home and I was so damn excited to see what they had to say about it. To see their faces when they saw what I’d made for myself. But I’ll never know what they thought, or what they think now.”

She grabs my hand in both of hers, kissing my knuckles. “I’m so sorry Caio.”

“So moving here was hard yeah. It took me a while to realize that I had nothing left to prove, not to them anyway. It took me a while to get out of that place where everything I did was to show someone else what I could do. It was only after my life started filling up with amazing people around me that I knew the only person that I needed to prove anything to was myself.

“I still go back there sometimes though. I still fall into these ruts where I feel like everything has to be perfect and I need to work harder to be better…” I sigh. I feel like I’m rambling, but Isla’s eyes just shine with understanding as she takes me in. She knows this feeling better than anyone, and that’s why I understand her wholly. Without her having to say everything she’s thinking, I know it.

“But I haven’t done that in a while, you remind me what’s important. Being here with you, like this, I never feel like I have to prove something to you, I’ve never felt like you see me for anything but who I really am, just Caio.” Isla doesn’t look at me like I’m a successful man. She doesn’t look at me like Caio, the hotel owner. Being with her has made me realize that I don’t have anything left to prove. Not to anyone else. If this girl keeps looking at me the way that she does now, then that’s all I need.

She untangles her legs and comes to straddle my lap. Her breath is shallow as she looks down at me. She runs a delicate hand through my hair, her eyes glittering with unshed tears. “I see you.”

“And I see you.” My heart fills up, my system flooding with a burning feeling I can only explain as love.

She closes her eyes as the tears begin to slide down her face. I bring her head down to mine and she doesn’t flinch as I press a soft kiss to each of her closed eyes before taking her mouth in mine.

In this moment, I feel like she gets me better than anyone else, like she doesn’t even have to try.

She kisses me slowly, like we have all the time in the world, like she’s showing me her everything, and I show her mine back.

chapter thirty-seven

ISLA

The morning breezecarries the smell of cinnamon and coffee down the street as I walk along Main. Usually strands of hair would be flying in my face by now, but I’ve got my hair tied back in a braid. Ever since that night that Caio braided my hair, I remember how much I like the style on me.

“Isla!” I turn around to see my brother waving at me from where he’s sitting on the rock wall. It reminds me of the day May and I sat along here, ice creams in hand.

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