Page 148 of Vows We Never Made
This is where he should be—where he belongs.
This is where we consummate a truth we’re only starting to put into words.
“Yes,” I whisper as he drags my mouth back to his. “Yes!”
Growling, he nods, cupping my face in his hands as he pushes into me and finds his rhythm.
“Hattie, fuck,” he whispers, right before his curses become incoherent desire.
We kiss like we’re starved, holding each other so tight, our bodies melding together in a new symphony.
This doesn’t feel like fucking anymore.
It hits all the right notes for that, yes, but it’s so much more. Too intimate to be so limited.
With my nails dragging down his back, I open my legs wider and let him take me.
Today, Ethan makes love to me for the very first time.
When his hips crash against mine and drive deep, when his groan becomes a roar, when he thrusts in to the hilt and the first rope of his come douses me in flames, I’m so gone.
I close my eyes against the pleasure, the emotion, the bittersweet hope and heartache and humility overflowing in my chest.
Like it or not, it’s happening.
I’m falling for this tortured man, and it scares me senseless.
“What do you think?”Margot asks, holding up a handful of deep red roses.
Each one looks so perfect from petals to stem, it feels like they can’t be natural. Even the color is crazy vibrant and uniform.
But my mind can’t stop and smell the roses today, let alone come up with original puns. Standing in the finest floral shop in Portland doesn’t help.
Ethanwantedto tell me his secret.
I didn’t drag it out of him.
He came home from work early with his confession ready, and we made love three more times that night, staying up well past midnight without even talking much.
Just being together in the afterglow was enough.
It still feels like one of those beautiful dreams you never want to end.
Like at any moment, I’ll wake up, the illusion will vanish, and I’ll be plunged back into reality, where he’s distant and growly and only tolerates my existence as a means to an end.
But so far, it hasn’t happened.
In the dreamland that’s becoming our life, he’s still this wonderful, hurting, precious man. And I’m just Hattie Sage, new bookstore owner.
I’m no one special.
Possibly not even special enough to carry his secret with the care it deserves.
I can barely keep up with living.
How can I handle this dark shadow hanging over his life, and by extension mine?
How can I shelter him?
