Page 67 of Second Chance for Mr. Alden

He grunted at the contact. “I did it because I loved you.”

My breath caught in my lungs. Had Alden just admitted to loving me? “What did you say?”

“I loved you, Jess. I loved you then, and I love you now.”

He loved me. After all this time, thinking I was just some friends with benefits arrangement, I wasn’t. I was more than that. So much more. Tears spilled down my cheeks. “You do?” My words hitched and pain ripped through my chest at his confession and the ridiculous but noble reason he decided to give up on us settled in.

“I do,” his deep voice rumbled, making my insides dance with joy and sadness.

“I love you too, Alden, but I hate that you made that decision without me. It was my life.Mine, to make that choice. Good or bad. I should’ve been the one to make it. Not you.” I yelled at him. Then cradled my closed fist to my chest. Damn, he was hard. He had muscles on top of muscles.

His fingers reached out and rested on my thigh. “I couldn’t have lived with myself if you grew to hate or resent me for losing everything.”

My shoulders dropped and my head dropped into my hands. “Don’t you get it, James? Youweremy everything.”

All that time wasted. All that time we’d never get back.

Chapter Fifteen

Alden

The darkness of theroom amplified the sound of her sobbing. Her gasping breath tore at me. “Baby, don’t cry.” My hand slid under her butt, and I lifted her onto my lap. When her tears didn’t seem to be stopping, I tugged her head to rest against my chest and held her close. “I’m sorry. I’m so sorry.”

“I don’t think I ever stopped loving you, James,” she whispered on a broken sigh.

My heart stuttered. To hear her say those words after all this time, after what I did, slayed me. Regret at my choices assailed me. The love I felt for her had never diminished, but to hear she felt the same even after I’d done nothing but push her away made me feel lower than low, but right now wasn’t about me or my feelings. It was about her.

I leaned over and flicked on the lamp next to the bed. Her head jerked up from my chest, eyes blinking at the sudden light. Seeing the despair etched across her face tightened my stomach and made me wish I had the ability to turn back time.

I cupped her face and wiped her tears. “I shouldn’t have made the decision for both of us. Saying I thought I was doing the right thing doesn’t seem like a good enough reason now. I’m sorry, Jess.”

She laid her head back down on my chest.

I rubbed circles on her back to comfort her. The only sound in the room was my palm brushing against the cotton of her shirt and her shuddering breaths.

We stayed like that for what seemed like hours, but was probably less than an hour, before her muscles released, and her body curled into mine. Her sobs had ended, and her breathing evened out.

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