Page 60 of Be With Me

Ah, a smile. It was small and teary. But it was there.

“Having a chance with you was the best fucking thing that ever happened to me, that happened at the worst possible time. I wanted to be with you all the time, so I could forget about all this other stuff going on with me. Or, at least, try to. However, when you left me, I had to face it head on. It forced me to swim or drown. I chose to swim. And I did it for me. Not anyone else.”

“So, what does that mean?”

“It means I still want to be with you all the time, but now my only motivation is to get you naked in my bed.” I meant it as a joke—kind of—and it worked.

Her laughter was one of the best things I’d ever heard, second only to her moans when I was deep inside of her.

I squeezed her hand, tugging her a little closer and took her other hand. “Look at me, Ailee.” When her eyes met mine, I laid it all out there. “I know it’s not going to be easy. There’s a lot of shit going on here. And I’m not going to lie and pretend there isn’t. But this thing between us, ‘lee, it doesn’t happen all the time. It’s fucking rare.” I didn’t want to say this last part, but it was something that needed to be said. “If you don’t want to deal with my baggage, I stand by what I said at your apartment. I get it. I totally do. And I wouldn’t blame you. But, I’m asking you, Ailee, to give this a chance. Give us a chance. Because I fucking ache for you. Constantly. Just to look at your face. Or feel the touch of your hands on me.” I rubbed my thumbs over her knuckles. “To hear your voice.”

She sank down onto the bed next to my hip, her shoulders falling forward.

“Ailee.”

She turned her head, her eyes meeting mine.

“I’m asking you to stay with me. Be with me.”

“What about the rest of the people in your head?”

“I don’t know,” I told her. “That’s something we’ll have to work on.”

My heart splintered into a million little pieces as I waited for her answer, but I’d said all I could say. I couldn’t push her anymore. This had to be her decision. Her choice. Life with me would be interesting, to say the least, and it wouldn’t be easy. But I couldn’t imagine this woman not being in it.

Turning toward me on the bed, she laid one hand on my thigh, and even in the condition I was in, a shot of lust shot straight up into my cock. But I ignored it. That wasn’t what was important right now.

“Okay,” she said.

It took me a minute to fully comprehend what she was saying. “What?”

“I said okay,” she repeated. “Let’s do this, Tyler.”

And my splintered heart rapidly became whole.

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