Page 41 of The Stolen Moments Trilogy

I nod and lower my head to kiss her. Her lips linger on mine and I sigh. “Of course I’ll call you, Minx. We can video call and shit.”

She smiles and presses another kiss to my lips. I pull away a little to look into her eyes and inhale deeply. “I want to be with you, Emilia. I want you to be mine, officially.”

She looks at me with wide eyes and blinks. “Carter, you’re leaving soon,” she whispers. I drop my forehead to hers and sigh.

“I know, I know I am. But can’t we just try?”

She looks at me excitedly, but then her expression drops and I know she’s going to reject me.

“I want to, but it’s probably not a good idea,” she says. “Kate would never forgive me. She made me promise, you know. After the whole Gabby thing, she made me promise to never fall for you. I can’t break her trust like that, Carter. Especially not now that our friendship is finally recovering. Besides, your mom told us clearly that she didn’t want us dating either. We’d be breaking both their hearts, when we won’t even be able to be together. You’re going to be so far away that we won’t ever see each other. Besides… you’ll be at college. It’ll be different. You won’t want to be tied down by a girl in your little hometown.”

I’m worried about Kate and Mom too, but I truly believe they’ll get over it, eventually. She hasn’t said it, but I know Emilia is also worried that I’ll suddenly start drinking and sleeping around. As if I have time for that with my school workload and football.

“Emilia, you know I’d never cheat on you. In the last couple of months we weren’t even dating, yet I didn’t even look at any other girl. You’re the only one for me, Minx.”

She bites down on her lip and I see the insecurity in her eyes. “Carter, being in a long-distance relationship would be really hard. I’m worried we’d hurt your family if we dated and then broke up. I’m not sure my friendship with Kate would survive, and I’d be letting your mom down too. Your mom has never asked anything of me, you know? It’s bad enough that we’re going behind her back like this, but it’s something else entirely to start dating knowing we don’t have her blessing.”

I sigh and pull back, holding myself up on top of her. “Do you really think we can go back from this? That we’ll be able to act like we’re just friends now that we’ve slept with each other? I know you want me too, Emilia. I know you want to be with me. So, why won’t you? Kate will get over it, and I know Mom loves you enough to accept our choices. But, you know, we don’t even have to tell them if you’re worried about their reaction.”

She gulps and looks away. She seems torn, and I know I shouldn’t, but I blame my family for this. The main reason she won’t be with me is because of Mom and Kate. It doesn’t help that Emilia seems convinced I’ll forget about her once I go to college. Like that would ever happen. I wonder if she thinks that because of her mother. How do I make her see I’m not anything like that woman?

“We can, Carter. We can still be friends now. There are no hard feelings between us. I just… I don’t think we should date.”

My heart fucking shatters. I close my eyes and push away from her. I grab my clothes and get dressed in record time. I feel like I might actually cry. There’s nothing I want more in life than to be with Emilia. If she felt an ounce of what I feel for her, that’d be enough for me.

“Carter!”

I glance back at her and shake my head. “We would’ve been so good together, Emilia. If only you’d give us a chance.”

I walk away and run a hand through my hair, frustrated as hell. She broke my fucking heart, but I still want to go running back to her.

Chapter 35

Carter

Emilia walks in and pauses when she sees me sitting in the living room. I hate how stunning she looks. I hate how that dress she’s wearing hugs her body. I hate that all I want to do is walk up to her and kiss her silly. I want her in my arms with her hair tickling my neck. I hate how badly I want her — I still remember the way she felt wrapped around my dick, the way she moaned my name and the look in her eyes when she told me she wanted me. I can’t believe she slept with me and then told me she doesn’t want to date me. I offered her my heart on a silver platter, and she trampled all over it. I understand why she did it, but that doesn’t make it hurt any less.

“Hey,” she murmurs. She stands by the doorway instead of walking in, as though she wants to keep as much distance between us as possible. I look away and glance back at the TV.

“Uh, have you seen Kate?”

I don’t look up at her, even though my entire body is begging me to. I still have a small amount of pride left, and I cling to it with all my might.

“Nope.”

I see her fidget awkwardly from the corner of my eye, and I’m almost ready to give in. She seems fine with breaking my heart, yet I can’t even stand to see her feeling remotely uncomfortable.

“But it’s Wednesday. We haven’t missed marathon day in a while. Not since… not since Gabby.”

I falter and turn to look at her. Why does she have to be so beautiful? Her blonde hair shines golden in the sunlight coming in from the window, making her look like some sort of Goddess. Her eyes are darker than usual and she looks seductive as fuck. Emilia doesn’t usually wear much makeup, but today she looks a little dolled up. I can’t help but hope that it’s for me.

“Well, she’s not here,” I reply, looking away.

Emilia freezes, and it takes all my willpower to stay seated. I want to walk up to her and wrap her in my arms. I want to hug her and hold her close. I want to feel her lips against mine. Above all, I need just a small sign that she wants the same, yet she gives me nothing.

“Hey, you’re here,” Kate says. She almost walks into Emilia and drags her into the living room with her. “Oh, you’re wearing makeup.”

Emilia blushes and nods. “I did one of those YouTube tutorials you sent me. It was actually pretty hard.”

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