Page 37 of Be Mine

My arms snatch her up, tossing her to the bed, coming down on top of her and immobilizing her. She giggles, squirming below me. That smile makes my chest seize, my blood warm. “You’re damned right you are,” I say, bringing my bloodied hand to her heart, “and I’m yours, too.”

Swiping my phone off the nightstand, I flip through my playlist until I find the song I want,Stand by Meby Ben E. King. “Dance with me.” I stand, motioning for her to join me.

“Noah were naked…andcovered in blood.”

“I don’t care. Dance with me.”

Clasping her hand in mine, I pull her up and against my body. She shakes her head and smiles, but her left hand goes to my shoulder, her right held tightly in mine. I lead her in a slow dance, some semblance of the box step I taught her in our kitchen not that long ago. It’s shaky at first, but soon we fall into a rhythm, swaying, skin on skin in the dark. The soft moonlightdrifting through the window makes Frankie look ethereal, like an angel come to save my soul.

Resting my cheek against her head, I let the words tumble from my mouth before I have a chance to stop them. “I love you, Frankie,” I say, so low I’m not sure she even hears me. I may have gifted her someone else’s heart, but she hasmyfucking heart in her clutches, always has. This woman is mine, I’ll kill anyone who stands in my way.

Tilting her head to look at me, there’s a shimmer of unshed tears in her eyes. “I love you, too.”

Maybe it’s too soon, maybe the circumstances aren’t ideal. But I couldn’t care less. No one writes our story but us.

I claim her lips with mine, hoping the kiss conveys it all. Everything she is to me. Everything I’d do for her.

“This is how it should have been,” she says when our lips separate.

“How do you mean?”

“Valentine’s Day, when we were thirteen. I should have walked over to your table. Thanked you for the card. We would have gone to the dance together, slow danced to songs. Had our first kiss.”

I’ve run that day through my head a million times. But I’m a different person now.

“There’s nothing that would keep me from you, Frankie baby. You were always meant to be mine.”

The End

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