Page 94 of Corrupted Lies

“Because you think you have to protect me from everything, but that’s never what I needed, Jake. I just needed you. I just want you. But I don’t think I can go back to just being bestfriends.” Jake had been honest with her, so she owed him the same.

She owed him the truth. The entire truth.

No holding anything back.

“I realize that we’re taking a big risk, I realize that if it doesn't work out then our friendship could be ruined. But I don’t care. I want to take that risk. I don’t want to live with regrets, and I certainly don’t want to live without you in my life.”

“I told you on the island we’d find a way to make it work no matter what happened. I should have held to that promise instead of bailing on you out of fear.”

“At least you came back, at least you're facing your fears instead of running from them. I don’t want to run from my feelings, Jake. I want to embrace them. I understand that maybe you don’t feel the same way.”

“Feel what way?”

It was time to say the words and pray she wasn't about to get rejected. “I’m in love with you, Jake Holloway.”

Chapter

Twenty-Two

October 21st

6:57 P.M.

She loved him.

Shelovedhim.

Alannah loved him.

Jake couldn’t quite believe that it could be true.

That voice in the back of his mind kept reminding him that Alannah would be dead right now if it wasn't for her own quick thinking. Although she didn't seem to see it the same way.

Maybe if she could see past it, he could learn to as well.

The hands he clutched like a lifeline—because that was exactly what they felt like to him—trembled slightly, and Jake realized Alannah was looking at him with something close to panic in her eyes. Fear and regret as well.

It was then that he realized he hadn't said the words back.

Instead, he’d just been sitting there staring at her like she’d suddenly grown two heads.

To him that was because she was so impossibly amazing, he could hardly believe that he was lucky enough to have beenblessed with having her in his life, but Alannah was no doubt convincing herself that he didn't feel the same way.

Leaning in, he crushed his lips to hers. His hands moved, one to cup the back of her neck so he could ravish her mouth, and his other curled around her back, tugging her toward the edge of the couch so she was balanced half on it and half against him.

When he finally pulled back to take a gulp of air, he found Alannah’s golden-brown eyes searching his.

“Jake?”

That she didn't trust him hurt a little, but he had no one to blame but himself. If he hadn't panicked and fled the hospital that afternoon, so afraid of failing her and losing her that he’d almost lost her anyway, then she wouldn't have a single doubt about him.

“I love you too, sunshine,” he said the words he knew she needed to hear, and that maybe he needed to as well. While he knew his dad had loved him and Jax, he never said the words to them, and as two little boys who had lost their mom, they’d needed that from him. The relatives who had cared for them when his dad was away hadn't loved him, if they had, they wouldn't have made him and Jax feel like burdens. His stepbrothers and Cassandra loved him, but it wasn't like they went around saying those words to each other, they all just knew that they were family.

Hearing those heavenly words fall from the lips of the woman who was the center of his world was an almost magical experience.

“You do? You're sure?” she asked, tentative hope lighting her eyes.

At least he’d had a mom for the first six years of his life who never missed an opportunity to tell him and his brother how much she loved them, so while it had been a long time since someone had said it to him, for Alannah this was all brand new.

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