Page 104 of Take My Breath Away
The Brighton train will be departing platform seven in four minutes….
“But it is who you are, James. You broke my heart.”
His voice falters and the tears break through the dam. Christ, but I want to kiss them away, but he’s closed in on himself and if I touch him now I fear he’ll shatter.
“Like you broke Alex’s heart. You told me about him, too. I won’t be another Alex. The train’s about to go, and I have to be on it. For both our sakes. Goodbye, James.”
No. There’s no way on this earth I’m going to let this happen. He’s turning away from me and I grab him by the shoulders, swinging him around.
“Leave me alone. I can’t go through this again, I can’t.”
He shoves at me, with more force than I expect, and the coffee he’s kept a death grip on drops from his hand, forming a spreading lake at our feet.
From the corner of my eye, I see two guards watching, ready to step in.
“Perry, please. Please listen to me. Just give me one more minute.”
“You don’t deserve it—”
“I know, but—”
The Brighton train will depart in three minutes. Doors will close one minute before departure…
“I did break Alex’s heart, and I’ll always be ashamed of that. Yes, I loved him once, but I never loved him enough. I’ve gone through my whole life convincing myself I’m incapable of wholehearted, complete love, believing that in some way I was defective. So I held back, and kept my heart under lock and key. But then you happened, Perry. You.”
“How can I trust you? Why should I believe you? Give me one good reason?”
I lift my hands to his face, cupping his cheeks in my palms, feeling the faint rasp of stubble.
“Why should you trust and believe me? I’ve not done much to earn those things from you. As for the reason, it’s this.”
I move in closer, my heart thundering in my chest when he doesn’t step back, when he doesn’t resist. Tilting his head, I brush my lips to his.
“I love you Perry. I love you more than enough for us both. I love you with every piece of my heart. With you, I can never hold back. Please, let me spend the rest of our lives proving it to you.”
A whistle screams, but we take no notice.
The two-thirty for Brighton has just departed platform seven…
Chapter Forty-Eight
PERRY
As I step through the door, I know I’m home. Truly home. For a moment I close my eyes as the truth of that hits me.
James takes my hand, leading me through to the kitchen, always the warm beating heart of the house. He holds on tight, as though he’s expecting me to make a run for it and jump on the next Brighton-bound train. I’m not going to do that. I’m never going to do that. I knew it from the moment he brushed his lips to mine and told me he loved me.
I watch as he makes tea. He’s clumsy, slopping the milk over the counter, squeezing the teabags out and dropping them on the floor before scooping them up and chucking them in the bin. The uncoordinated man stumbling around the kitchen is so far removed from the James I know that, despite the earthquake that’s rocked our worlds, I can’t help but smile.
He sits down opposite me at the blond wood table, just as he’s done so many times before. My heart lurches with the familiarity of it.
“I was such a fool for letting you go.”
He turns his mug around and around, spilling the tea he’s not attempting to drink. His eyes are downcast, as though he’s ashamed to meet mine. I place my hands on his, halting his frantic, nervous movements.
“You were, but I was a fool for not fighting enough to stay.”
He looks up, and there’s the ghost of a smile in his green eyes. We hold each other’s gaze. In the quiet of the kitchen, the fridge rumbles and gurgles as the clock ticks away the seconds.
