body ached, remembering the reassuring symmetry of her heart beating against mine.
“You, Bailey Ashlyn Pierce. My girl, my wife, my best friend, my whole fucking heart.” Grabbing her face in between my hands, I yearned for her to feel me.
To see me.
To love me.
The man who would die for her.
It didn’t take long for our bodies to close the emotional and physical distance between us. From her mind to her heart, to every goddamn bone in her body, I knew she felt it. There was no way in hell she couldn’t sense the effect I always had on her.
The effect she’d always have on me.
“You’re all the same. Don’t you get it? You’re one of them. You’re just one of them to me, Aiden. That’s all that’s left. Don’t you see?”
I gripped onto her face. “To Hell with that, Bay. I’m your one and only. I’m your home.”
“There’s no peace for me in that house.”
“I know, you took it all with you.”
Her body trembled, her strong, hardened composure weakened with each word that escaped from her mouth. “Why do you keep hurting me?”
I grimaced as if the wind had been knocked right out of me. “I would never hurt you. Never. I’m here, Bailey.” My grip shifted toward the nook of her neck, tugging her toward me, bringing her heart against mine. “I’m right here.”
She hadn’t let me feel her warmth, her security, her heart in what felt like an eternity.
“This is where I belong. Where I’ve always been since we were seven-years-old. I’m a part of you. I need you to hear me screaming out for you. I still need you, Beauty. I’m lost without you.” Pulling her hair away from her face to look deep into her eyes, I said the only thing that was true.
The only truth I ever knew.
“I choose us, Bailey Pierce. I will always choose us. No matter what. I. Choose. Us.”
She consciously jerked back from the weight of my words.
My girl was at a loss, and I had nothing left to lose.
“It’s you and me against the world, baby. It’s always been you and me against the world. You know that, Bay. You do. Just come back to me … please. I can’t live, I can’t breathe… I can’t go on without you.”
She didn’t say a word, not one fucking word. She just stood there, looking at me. Searching for the man she once knew. Her resolve was slowly breaking, but I couldn’t take it anymore.
I broke down. I bawled, pulling her back toward me, and to my surprise she let me.
“If I did anything right in my life, it was loving you. Do you understand me? You were the beginning of everything for me. You will forever be my always, Bay, I only need two things in this world. You and us. Just you and us, Bailey.” I leaned forward, setting my forehead against hers, taking a deep breath, trying to gather my thoughts.
My emotions.
My fucking memories.
“I’m trying, Bay. I don’t know what else I can do. Please don’t give up on me. On us.”
“Aiden … please.”
I peered up at her as tears started spilling down the sides of her beautiful face, one right after the other. She didn’t even try to hide them, she let her emotions flow freely. Wanting me to see the part inside of her she thought died long ago.
“Just take me back, baby. Please… God, just take me back to the night we first met,” I faintly uttered near her ear, hanging on by a thread.
Hoping she realized the significance in what I just said.
As soon as her eyes filled with fresh tears, I wiped them all away. Not knowing where to go from here. She held my gaze until the sensations became too much for her. Lowering herself onto the edge of the bed as her chest heaved for her next breath.
In one swift movement, I fell to my knees in front of her and clung onto the back of her neck. There was no way in hell she could keep me away. Before she even realized what was happening, I was holding her delicate frame in my strong and steady arms. Kissing away the tears on her face as they fell to the floor between us. She stirred beneath my lips, her body shuddered under my touch.
Giving me hope, strength, the reassurance I needed to go on.
“Aiden, please…” Her mouth quivered. “Just let me go.”
“I won’t lose you,” I breathed out against her lips. “I