not going to let you ‘sorry’ this away, Gage.” I shook my head. “You accused me of cheating on you,” I reminded him. “Forget everything and everyone else for a moment. Forget your anger at me not agreeing to marry you. Forget Reagan’s instigating. Forget David.” I stepped towards him until I was looking up into his heartbreakingly beautiful face. “Knowing the things about me that you know, how could you ever think, even for a split second, that I would lay down for another man when you’re the only man who has ever fulfilled those deep, dark needs inside me? No man, and I do mean no man, has ever ignited a fraction of the desire you inspire in me with just being in the same room with you,” I told him.
“Mystic-”
“It is impossible for another man to turn my head,” I went on. “They couldn’t do it when we weren’t together, and you’re out of your mind if you think they can do it while we are.” I searched his eyes, and asked, “So, what the hell was that today?”
Gage blew out a deep breath. “Panic,” he answered. “Pure, unadulterated panic.”
“Oh, Gage…”
He grabbed my hand and led me over to the couch. Gage sat me down, and then took a seat next to me. His brows drew down as he said, “Here’s the thing, Mystic. You think we might be moving too fast because it’s been ten years since we’ve been together, and you think we need to get to know each other again. But, to me, I think we’re moving too slow.”
“Too slow?” The corner of his lip lifted in a smirk that almost made me lose my train of thought.
Almost.
“Mystic, had your parents never interfered, there’s no way we would have gone off to college without getting married first,” he replied, completely flooring me. I mean, I knew we had been tied together in a way that was crucial, but it never occurred to me that Gage would have wanted to get married at such a young age.
“Wh…what?”
“Come on, Mystic,” he chided. “You had to have known that’s where we were headed.”
“Well, sure,” I conceded. “Someday.”
His hands reached out and hauled me onto his lap. Brushing random stray hairs back from my face, he said, “Okay, let me ask you this. Had we stayed together, do you think we’d be married now? Have a kid or two?”
“I don’t know,” I answered honestly. “I suppose so, I guess. Once college was finished and our careers were established.”
“If we had stayed together, it’s a safe bet to say you’d probably be pregnant right now with at least our first child, Mystic,” he insisted.
“Okay. Maybe.” He gave me a soft smile and, once again, I was almost rendered stupid. Gage had never been a big smiler when we were younger, and it always made me feel special when he had gifted me with one.
“That’s why I think we’re behind on this thing between us, Mystic,” he said. “I lost ten years with you. I have no desire to waste another second of not having you.”
“But David-”
“It wasn’t about David,” he said, stopping me. “It was about me. It was about me not being able to deal with real life because I hadn’t been dealing with real life.”
“What do you mean?”
Gage let out another deep breath. “I finally told my mom about my dad,” he said, shocking me.
“What? When?”
“Earlier,” he replied. “She was in town and I promised her we’d do lunch. But then that shitstorm happened at CI and she made me come clean about our fight. Or, rather, my acting an ass. I couldn’t explain, though, without telling her why I reacted the way I had. Years of pent up frustration, and years of harboring my father’s lies, led to my outburst.” Gage leaned in and placed a soft kiss on my lips. “Baby, I know you’d never cheat on me. I know that. I swear, I do. The panic stemmed from founding you again after losing you in one of the most brutal ways. But my issues always stemmed from watching my Mom being blindingly happy in a marriage she had no idea she was in.”
“Oh, Gage,” I whispered. “How did she take it? How is she?”
“She took it hard,” he answered. “She took it extremely hard. But then she pulled herself together and did what she always did. She put herself on the backburner and was my mom first. She listened, and then we talked about