Page 91 of Fighting Fate
“Sounds like a load of horseshit.” Pulling back, Willow gives me a head-to-toe inspection. Focusing back on me while her hands drop to her hips, she levels me a don’t fuck with me stern stare. “That’s like saying that I need to lose my voice so that I give a performance my all. It doesn’t work like that, Rory. It can’t. How can you go into a fight already injured?”
“It’s a fucking bruise, Willow. I’ve had worse in the cage.”
“That’s different. You’re fighting to win…”
“I’m always fighting to win,” I snap, earning myself a scowl. “If my head wasn’t elsewhere…I can’t do this anymore.”
Even in the dark and with the pretty make-up, I can see her blanch at my remark. My body tenses in response, desperately needing get close to her again in spite of my words.
“I can’t do this hot-and-cold shit anymore. One second you’re acting like this…like you want me…us…and the next, you’re pushing me away like there’s no going back.”
“There is no going back.” Willow lets out a deep breath.
I’m taking a step forward, and she’s taking a step back, but the instant I stop, she edges closer until we’re back to it. Me chasing her every backward step until her back finds the door and my chest finds hers.
“What are we doing here, then? Why did you come looking for me?”
Her stares zeroes on the open collar of my shirt, watching as I swallow down the urge to force her eyes back to mine.
“I-I can’t help it.”
“You can’t help it.” I’m not sure what that means anymore. Does she want me or not?
“Doesn’t matter how hard I try or how terrified I am of what will happen—”
“Might happen. It’s not a sure thing. You don’t know it for certain…it’s a plausibility that you’re holding on to.”
“Either way…” she whispers, trailing her gaze to mine. “I’m always looking for you. Always. Every day I’m waiting around for you to get home, and tonight…I kept searching every face throughout the entire performance I—”
“You knew where I was.” I inch closer, my hands flattening on either side of her head. “I was right here. You know that I’m always here, the same way you know I will walk through the door to see you every damn night. Just like I’ll wake up every morning to see your face whether you’re in my bed or I have to listen out for you leaving the bedroom across the hall from mine. You know this.”
“I do.” Her hands clutch my shoulders as I lower myself impossibly closer so that our foreheads are touching and our breaths soak over our lips.
“Then what else can I do? What else do you want from me? What can I give you that I haven’t already?”
“Nothing.” The shake of her head has the tips of our noses brushing. “It’s not you, Rory, it’s me…I’m scared.” Sucking in a quick breath, Willow moulds her hands to the base of my neck. “I’m so, so scared that you’ll look back and I’ll be the biggest mistake you’ve made. I don’t want to be a regret. Not you…not ever, and—”
I don’t care what she’s about to say. It doesn’t matter as I press my gaping lips to hers and she sighs it all out into my mouth and I suck it all the way into my lungs with a nip to her pout. Licking it over, I press a kiss to each corner of her mouth before I crush my lips to hers and savour the groan that vibrates through her.
“My only regret will be all the nights you’ve spent outside my bed and all the days I haven’t kissed you or told you I love you.” Her lips part as her eyes open on mine. Fuck, before I can stop myself, I’m falling all over again. Every piece of me is bursting into flames for her. Every echelon of my soul is blazing for hers.
Then she smiles, and my heart breaks at the sight. It breaks and breaks and breaks, over and over again with every tremble of her lips and light gasp of breath. And it only pulls itself together piece by piece as she barely whispers, “I love you.”
“That’s the only thing that matters, sweetheart. You and me together. Our biggest mistake will be all the time we’re wasting trying to fight this because all I want is to worship you from your head to your toes and everything in between.”
“Is it really what you want?” she asks with her fingers pushing into my hair, her wracking chest crushing into mine with every erratic breath.
“Fuck, beautiful girl,” I groan over her lips while my hands knot into her long waves. “Are you gonna let me?” Nodding, Willow inches onto her toes. Her arms wrap around my shoulders as I straighten and tell her, “This is it. You’re mine and I’m yours, and there is no going back from here. You understand me?”
“Yes.”
“Good.” She nods again, tightening her hold on me. To make my intentions clear, I add, “You’ll sleep in my bed every night, and I will wake up to your face every morning.”
“Okay,” she murmurs.
“We’ll fight over stupid shit, but we will always make up before the sun goes down. I’ll fuck you at night and worship you in the morning, and every second in between, I’ll love you and yearn for you like it’s a lifetime. That’s how it will be forever.”
“You promise?”