Page 34 of Easy To Lose

“He told you to come get me?” The hurt in her voice is palpable, and I realize what I just insinuated and start to shake my head.

“No, baby, no. He doesn’t want to get rid of you. He just wants us to work things out. And he knew that I needed to explain myself, so he told me where you were.” Her gaze is glued to the ground, her hands in her pockets as she shifts from foot to foot. “I was so worried…” Morgan cackles, rolling her eyes at the same time.

“Yeah, right. You didn’t really miss me when you ignored me and didn’t answer any of my calls or texts. It was hours, Owen. Not just one but several.” I take a step toward her, ready to explain everything, but she holds up her hand again. “You know what? I don’t think I’m ready to hear your excuses right now. Just go.” I stand there numbly, dumbfounded that the woman I love dismissed me without a second thought.

Not happening.

“No, I’m not leaving.” She tries to walk around me, but my fingers grip her arm, holding her in place. “Morgan, I love you. More than anything on this Earth. More than my gym. More than my life.” She starts to shake under my touch, so I let her go, hoping to God she doesn’t walk away. When she doesn’t, I continue. “I fucked up. But not in the way you think. All I’m asking for is a chance to explain.”

“Fine. You have ten minutes.” She sits on the front step, her eyes staring me down as I sit next to her. When she moves an inch to the right, my stomach sinks.

I have a lot of work to do.

Chapter 28

Morgan

Why does he have to look so edible? It’s not fair that he shows up and it looks like it’s laundry day, and I’m wearing the most unflattering thing imaginable. But here he is, in his basketball shorts, t-shirt, and backwards ball cap that he knows drives me crazy, looking like he wants to devour me whole. How am I supposed to resist him when he looks at me with those blue eyes that turn me to mush, no matter how hard I try?

“I didn’t cheat on you.” His voice is soft, and I almost don’t hear it, but when I look over, his eyes plead with mine to understand.

“I know,” I admit. Being here with Charly, away from everything and everyone that reminds me of what happened, I realized that Bailey answering his phone was a ploy. A reason for me to doubt him when I know in my gut that he would never do that.

“If you know, then why did you come here?” It’s a valid question, one I asked myself a million times, and one that Charly asked to the point of me wanting to strangle her.

“I guess I just needed space. Time away from you and the shop to gather my thoughts. Plus, I really didn’t want to run into Bailey and have her make everything worse.” He nods, still not saying much. “What happened, Owen? You left me to wake up alone, you told me you would be there that night. You told me you were nothing like Aaron, and yet you did the exact same thing he did.” He starts shaking his head.

“I am nothing like him. I didn’t cheat on you like he did.” I nod, because that’s true. But when I turn on the step and face him, I know he sees the seriousness, and his expression falls.

“Regardless, you betrayed me just like he did. You might not have cheated on me, but you still lied to me, ignored me, and left me alone to think the worst. And coming from you? The man I’ve loved since I was sixteen? That was almost worse.” He lets his head fall into his hands as his fingers dig into his scalp. My hands itch to touch him, but I know the moment I do, I’ll cave. And I need to hear what he has to say.

“She was blackmailing me.” My eyes look over at him, confused. “She somehow got ahold of my phone and found the pictures you sent.” My eyes furrow, not understanding what he’s saying. Then his eyes meet mine, and it dawns on me—the lingerie photos. My gut wrenches. “That’s exactly why I didn’t tell you. Because I wanted to keep that look of horror off your face. I didn’t want this to touch you.”

“That’s not up to you, Owen. If you want to do this with me, then you need to be with me, not always in front of me. We’re a team, and that means I need to know when something like this affects not only you but also me.” He nods, his eyes meeting mine once more.

“I felt sick when she texted me that morning. I hated leaving you after what we shared. That was the best night of my life, and she ruined it.”

“She didn’t ruin anything. If you had just talked to me, I would have told you to tell her to go fuck herself.”

“What?” His shocked expression releases a chuckle, and a small smile crosses my lips.

“Does her having those photos make me angry? Hell fucking yes, it does. Is it an invasion of privacy? Of course. But is it the end of the world? No.” He eyes me, seemingly confused.

“But she was going to send those pictures to everyone she knew…” I take my hand and place it over his, feeling a tremor go through him as I do.

“Owen, honey, who could she have possibly sent them to that would ruin my life, hmm?” His brow furrows as he thinks it over, and I place my hand on the side of his face, a feeling of relief washing over me because I know that everything will be okay. “The papers? Bloggers? Social media? All of that means nothing to me.”

“But what about the store?” I tilt my head to the side, thinking about what something like that could do to the reputation of Head Over Heels. I look over my shoulder and see Charly peering out through the window. When she winks at me, I smile, knowing that if anything happened, she’d be right there with me, helping.

“I’m not the store. I just run it. Those pictures represent something important for me.” Owen gets closer, his knees touching mine, and it takes all my restraint not to kiss him right here, right now. “When I put on that white lace…” He groans, his fingers digging into my leg as if he’s reliving it. “When I put that on, I felt the sexiest I have ever felt in my entire life.”

“Baby, you are the sexiest woman on this planet.” His hand grasps the side of my neck, and he pulls me forward so our foreheads touch. The warm caress of his breath washes over my lips, making it even harder to resist him.

“You hurt me,” I whisper, those uncertainties rising once again with him this close. I want to forgive him. With every fiber of my being, I want to wrap myself in his arms and tell him that I’ll forget all of it. But that’s not reality. The truth is, he betrayed me. Maybe not intentionally, but he still did it.

“I know. And I have to live with that for the rest of my life.” His eyes are dark as his lips get closer and closer. “I swore when you told me what that bastard did to you in New York that I would never betray you like that. And I did. I will spend the rest of my life making up for the fact that I made you doubt my love for you. I made you doubt that you are the single best thing in my life. And that guts me, cuts me to the core. I’m so sorry, baby. So fucking sorry.” I can’t help the tears that fall as he says those words, and before I can say anything back, his lips are on mine, and the whole world falls away.

Yes, we have a lot to work through. Yes, we still need to talk about exactly what happened and how we’re going to get those pictures away from his ex. But right now, I need this feeling. I need to remember what his lips feel like against mine, I need to remember what his hands feel like grasping my hair and pulling me closer as he devours me. When his tongue demands entrance, I know I’m a goner, and the groan that escapes from deep in his throat makes me realize that he feels it, too. Before I can say anything, Owen lifts me off the stairs and places me on his lap, his arms encircling my waist as I start to grind against him, losing myself to the feeling of being back in his arms.

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