Authors: Ellery Rhodes
"Instead of beaten within an inch of her life, tangled up in this Macone mess?" she said shrilly. She glanced around us, clearly the type that liked to put on a show that she was the consummate professional. However, the grieving mother wanted to bash my brains in. She jabbed my chest with her finger. "If Thomas didn't make me a killer deal, all but forcing me to give you immunity as well, you'd be sharing a jail cell with Macone."
"I don't care about any of that right now." I pushed her hand away. "We can do this some other time. All I care about and all we have to talk about is whether you will allow me to see Victoria."
She flipped her blonde mane over her shoulder with a snort. "Are you kidding me? After all that's happened, why on earth do you think I'd allow you to see my daughter?"
"Because I'm in love with her." She was ready to derail me, tell me that didn't mean a damn thing to her, but I didn't stop. "I don't expect you to believe me, and that really doesn't matter. I know I love her because all my life I saw what it was to hate someone. To have nothing in your heart but disdain and animosity. But Vix is the exception. I care if she's sick or well, happy or sad. I'd lay down my life for her. I hope I don't have to, because I've been regretting leaving her since the day we broke up. And I want to spend the rest of my life correcting that mistake, if she'll have me."
When the last words came out, my breathing became erratic and wild, like I'd just dashed across the finish line. I could collapse and weep because I'd made it. I'd finally come clean about how I felt about Victoria.
I expected her mother to say that was all well and good but changed nothing. I'd even put a wall up just in case she laughed at me.
She did neither.
She just stared at me. Not incredulously, but in silent awe and wonder.
She tucked her blonde hair behind her ears with a sigh. "She's been asking for you since she woke up." Her eyes hardened to ice. "Don't make me regret this, Jace."
I'd never moved so fast in my life, everything a streaked blur, heart pounding in my chest as I flew to her hospital room.
The smile on my face dropped when I saw Vix in the bed, cords and IVs snaking around her like vines. The blood was gone, but the bruises remained, purpling her milky skin. She looked up from her cell phone, only one eye trained on me because the other was swollen shut.
"Jace!"
I’d told myself the first thing I'd do when I saw her was take her in my arms, but I edged closer, shame and guilty turning my feet into cinderblocks. "Babe, I..." Tears burned my eyes and I squeezed them shut, willing them away. The last thing she needed was me breaking down when she was the one in a hospital bed.
"C'mere." She held out her hand, the sweetest smile on her face. A smile that told me she'd already forgiven me for failing her.
I wasn't nearly so easy on myself. "If I'd just walked away, if I'd just let you live your life—"
"Then we'd both be miserable," she cut in firmly. "I've tried moving on. I dated, I—" She winced. "Fucked."
She let that sink in, and I reined in the flash of anger. I hadn’t been some goddamn monk while we were apart, and it wasn't fair to expect her to wait until I pulled my head out of my ass.
"But none of that mattered. Nothing compares to what you and I had.
Have
," she corrected quickly. "Because now that you're back in my life, I'm not letting you go. I'm sick of fighting what I know is right in my heart. We belong together, Jace."
The love that shone in her eyes nearly brought me to my knees. After all that happened, all she'd been through, she loved me.
"Well, we need to mark this moment in time. Jace Murrow is speechless," she quipped with a sly smile. "Still just as stubborn though."
I was still a heartbeat away, her fingers stretching toward mine. I interlaced them with hers, feeling the same electricity that I did that day in US History. The magic that turned the impossible into reality. That the most beautiful girl I'd ever seen had feelings for me. I'd always struggled with whether I deserved her love, but I saw myself reflected through her gaze. The me beneath all of the darkness I carried like an anchor. Someone that was worthy of her and would use every new day as an opportunity to make sure she was happy.
I leaned down and pressed my lips against hers.
"Ahem."
I cocked my head toward the door where her mother stood, hands on her hips, a scolding in her eyes. She shook her head.
"You see that she's going to be okay, so you can go now."
"Mom, he doesn't have to—"
"It's okay," I assured her. I dodged the daggers her mother hurled my way and kissed her, keeping this one rated G.
Victoria gripped me, not letting go of the front of my shirt. "I don't want you to go," she said loudly, more for her mother's benefit than my own. "We're a couple and—"
"The summer's not even halfway over," I winked. "I'm not going anywhere, Vix."
"You promise?"
I pressed my lips against her forehead, breathing in her scent. Inhaling the hope for our future. "I promise."
****
Also By Ellery
Always (Always Series, Book One)
Never (Always Series, Book Two)
E
llery Rhodes loves to read and write romance with lots of steaminess. She moved from the East coast to California for love and stayed for the french fry burritos (though her husband is pretty nifty too!).
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