Page 8 of Before the Fall

“How could you do that to me? I loved you, Jaxon.”

He grabs my wrists to stop me from hitting him, so I turn my back to him. “Don’t. You deserve whatever I do to you,” I sob, unable to hold back my tears any longer.

Jaxon rests his chin on my shoulder and quietly says, “I loved you. I still do. I’ve never stopped, Tia.”

I can’t listen to this.

Turning in his hold, I try to yank my arms from him but he won’t let go. “Well, I have.”

“No, you haven’t. A love like the kind we have doesn’t go away.”

“Maybe not for you, but I got over it,” I lie, but it’s no use.

He has no idea how much I wish I could have moved on. It’s all I wanted for months, but it never happened.

“I don’t believe you. You couldn’t get over me any more than I could get over you.”

I shake my head, desperate to not let him see how much he affects me. “I don’t care if you believe me! I want you to leave. Now!”

He pulls me to him and kisses me, and in a flash, it’s like he never left. Like always, his kiss takes my breath away. I’ve missed him so much, and I can’t fight that truth anymore.

When I begin to cry harder, he holds me tightly to him and whispers against the top of my head, “I’m sorry, Tia. I left because I wanted to keep you safe.”

I don’t understand and look up at him, confused. “You broke my heart, Jaxon. Is that the kind of safety you meant?”

He dries my tears by gently dragging the pad of his thumb across the tops of my cheeks. “I stayed away, even though it killed me not to be near you.”

“Every night for months, I cried myself to sleep. I didn’t want to miss you, but I couldn’t help it.”

Leaning down, he presses a kiss to my forehead and whispers, “I’m sorry. Forgive me.”

I want to say I can’t forgive him. I can’t lie, though. I’ve never stopped loving him.

CHAPTER FOUR

Tia

Every inch of my body craves his touch, just like it’s always been. There’s just something about Jaxon that never fails to make me forget everything.

How angry I am at him. How much on paper we don’t work. How we’re as different as night and day.

None of it matters when he’s near me.

“So there was never another woman? Do you know how much it hurt thinking you met someone else and didn’t care about me anymore?”

He nods, frowning as he acknowledges what he did. “I was trying to do something good, for once, Tia. I never wanted to leave you, but things just got too dangerous and I wanted to protect you. That’s the God’s honest truth.”

I want to believe him. I truly do. Nobody in the world has ever made me happier than Jaxon, but if he was trying to keep me safe, why is he here today?”

“Why did you come back? Is it that I’m not in danger anymore? By the way, as much as I love the knight in shining armor thing you were doing, I think it would have been much better if you had given me some clue as to what I should have been worried about. It’s not like you were here watching me day and night to make sure I was safe.”

Jaxon sighs and sits down on the couch. “I didn’t want to upset you.”

“Be honest. You didn’t want me to be able to say that once again your job is a problem. At least admit that so we can be truthful with one another now.”

He gives me a smile and pats the cushion next to him. “Fair enough. I know how you feel about my job. That wasn’t it, though. I made sure you were safe by not being around you. If I was with you, then you could be a target to hurt me. But I did check on you.”

I sit down next to him and shake my head. “So you got to see me, but I didn’t get that little bonus.”