Page 126 of Possession

“I loved you from the first moment I set eyes on you.” Saying it aloud seemed like coming full circle. Like I’d been razed by fire, scorched to the marrow and burned clean.

Her eyes brimmed and overflowed. “You took a million dollars to pretend you’d never even seen me.”

“And I built a company where every piece of it was a testament to you. Every goddamn pane of glass. Every clock on the wall. I’m still fucking waiting, Grace. I would’ve waited until the end of time for you even if you’d never stepped foot into the shrine I’d built.” I gripped her shoulders, but I didn’t shake her. I didn’t need to, since I was shaking hard enough to rock us both. “But you did. You walked in and your first words to me were lies. And I didn’t care, because even a lie from you was more than I’d ever hoped for.”

She yanked back from me and took a step away. Two. Then she bowed her head, and it was all the opening I needed. I enfolded her in my arms and spoke against her cheek, barely conscious of the thud of my racing heart. It filled my head, pulsed through my body. She probably could feel it right through her back.

I hoped she did. Maybe then she’d believe me.

“I love you. I’ve always loved you. If I’d known then that this was even a possibility, that you could’ve needed me, I never would have signed. But I thought I was doing what was best for you.”

She reared out of my arms and whirled to face me. Words, I would’ve been prepared for. Even screams.

For her to swing at me—not so much.

Her fist glanced off the corner of my mouth and the sting caught me by surprise. She had more power in those knuckles than I’d given her credit for. When matched with the overpowering fury in her gorgeous eyes, she was beautiful in a way I couldn’t comprehend.

And fuck, my lip was throbbing.

“You have no right, absolutely no right to decide what’s best for me. You got that, Blake Carson? You didn’t back then, and you sure as hell don’t now.” She gripped the lapels of my shirt and dragged me down until my bloody lips were on hers.

Jesus, she’d hit me hard enough to make me bleed, and she was still kissing me. Still raking her nails down my chest as she pulled me down into the madness of her, so far down I’d never be able to see my way clear again.

I didn’t want to.

Just as abruptly, she pushed me back and wiped her mouth. “You’re bleeding.”

There was no reason I should’ve found that funny. Especially now. But Christ if I didn’t drop my head back and roar with laughter.

“Idid that?”

“You did that,” I affirmed, wiping away the evidence.

“Oh.” Her brow furrowed then smoothed. “Well…good. Now you know I mean business.” She went toe to toe with me. “This is the last time. If you ever tell me another lie, I’m gone. I don’t care if you reimagine the Taj Mahal for me out of glass and slap my name on it in neon pink lights, I’m finished. I won’t be with someone who doesn’t treat me as an equal or keeps me in the dark. My grandmother hid things from me for years, and now I don’t think there’s a single thing that happened between us I can trust.”

“You can. There’s one you never have to doubt. She loved you with all her heart.”

Grace started to turn away, but I cupped her cheek. “She asked me to stay away from you because she believed you were better off without me. I truly believe that.”

“And then she died and left me all alone. If there hadn’t been you…” She shook her head, shaking off the tears that had formed in her eyes again as if she could make them disappear just as easily. “I can’t forgive her for that.”

Her stubborn tone brooked no arguments. In time, I thought she’d change her mind.

Time was the one thing we had now.

“But wait.” Her throat rippled as she looked back at me. “You said she begged you to buy her house. Why would she do that if she wanted you to stay far away from me? She knew how I felt about that house. I wouldn’t just forget about it.”

Of everything I’d said aloud, this was the most difficult.

I cupped her damp cheek, rubbing my thumb over the tears she’d cried over us.

Me and her grandmother, illicit conspirators in a war I’d never known I was fighting.

I did now. Now I knew what was at stake.

“Because she knew she’d be leaving you alone, and she was giving us back the chance she’d stolen from us.”

Chapter 31

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