Page 168 of From Best Friend to Bride
Because something deep down told me that if I’d handed her those annulment papers, that would have been the end of us. Not just our marriage, but our friendship.
If I’d let her walk away, there would have been no way to get her back.
Not as my wife, not as my love, and certainly not as my best friend.
The thought of losing Delilah was too much for me to bear. That was why I’d given in. Why I’d given myself over to my desires and touched her the way she wanted, the way I wanted. If I stood to lose her anyway, what did matter?
At least now there was a chance.
That maybe she shared some of the feelings I did.
No. She did. I knew she did.
I knew Deli better than anyone else in this world. The one thing she’d never been able to hide from me were her emotions, and there’d been a hell of a lot more pain than tiredness in her eyes when she’d proposed ending our marriage.
She didn’t want to.
I didn’t want to.
If it was hard before, it was an impossibility now. This woman, my lifelong best friend, who’d I’d always referred to as my platonic soulmate, couldn’t possibly leave me.
I would never let her.
Delilah wasn’t just my soulmate.
She was my soul.
If she left me, every part of what made me who I am would go with her. Without her in my life, I would be nothing more than a shell, constantly searching for her presence and listening for her voice.
My hold on her tightened as the thought of her leaving me flickered through my mind. I cradled the back of her head, stroking my thumb across her soft hair, and she whimpered.
“What’s wrong?” I turned my face into her hair and kissed the back of her head.
“My legs hurt,” she mumbled tiredly. “You’re an animal.”
I laughed and trailed my finger up and down her spine, making her shiver. “You provoked me. What else was I supposed to do? Lose to you?”
“Yes. That’s what you should have done.” She sniffed and shifted so she was facing me, rolling off to the side and nestling her head on my shoulder. “That would have been the polite thing to do.”
“There’s nothing polite about what just happened.”
“You—” She clamped her lips together, glaring up at me, then swatted at my chest. “You’re so dirty!”
I grinned, trying not to laugh again. “What can I say? You clearly bring out my inner slut, Deli.”
“Oh, for God’s sake!” She covered her face with her hand, but the blush that rose in her cheeks was visible outside of her fingers. “I can’t believe you made me use that toy.”
“You’ve been using it for practically the entirety of our marriage, and now you’re embarrassed?”
“That was then!” She peeked out between her fingers. “And you just…”
“I distinctly remember you telling me how it worked and that my ‘future wife’ would appreciate it.” I stroked her messy hair away from her face, letting my fingers linger close to her cheek for a moment. “I thought that information would serve my current wife far better.”
She pressed her lips together, then buried her face in my shoulder.
She’d never been this embarrassed before.
God, I love her.
