Page 71 of Love is Fake

All I see is Lennox and as his eyelids flutter, I think my heart actually stops. He blinks, his eyes open slowly, painfully slowly and there’s a chorus of exclamations around me. I’m shoved out of the way as the medics shine lights into his eyes and pepper him with questions.

I want nothing more than to hold my ground, but I know they need to check him over, they need to make sure he’s okay. And hehasto be okay. I don’t think I could cope with anything else.

“Isabella?” I hear Nox’s voice from the middle of the crowd and I see him start to get up from the ice.

“Gray, sit your ass down and let us look you over!” One of the medics is shouting, but clearly he doesn’t know Lennox very well if he thinks he’s any good at following orders.

“Isabella?” He ignores the tumult around him, coming up to his full height, a head above the other men, and pulling off his helmet to meet me eye to eye.

“Nox,” I breathe his name, tears of relief in my eyes as I all but launch myself at him.

He catches me in the air, grunting a little and I pull back, horrified. “Oh my God, did I hurt you?”

Lennox shakes his head, keeping me from moving away and I wrap my legs around him as he holds me against him. “Only when you left,” he tells me quietly and my heart squeezes in my chest.

“I’m not going anywhere now,” I promise him as his eyes search my face for the truth. “You’re stuck with me.” I laugh through the tears I’ve stopped trying to pretend I’m not crying.

“Is that so?” He looks at me, reverently, as if he’s carrying something precious in his arms.

I nod, slowly. “If that’s okay with you?”

“You watched the interview.” He still hasn’t taken his eyes off of me and the medics have learned to back off after he’s had to growl at a few of them to give us some space.

I nod again. “I’m sorry.” I dip my chin, but Lennox lifts it right up to meet my gaze.

He looks at me as if I’m crazy, special but still crazy. “What do you have to be sorry for?”

“For not letting you explain. We could’ve avoided all this,” I gesture vaguely around me. We could’ve avoided the last few weeks of heartbreak.

“I wanted to tell you, Iz, I really did,” he shakes his head, sighing in frustration. “But there was never a right time and then I just fucking chickened out because I was shit scared of losing you. But I lost you anyway.”

God, I would do anything to take the haunted look off his face.

“I’m not lost, Nox,” I tell him. “I’m right here, loving you.” I take a deep breath. “I love you.”

Slowly, Lennox’s expression shifts from awe to the happiest I think I’ve ever seen him, and it only makes him even more devastating. He dips his forehead to meet mine, breathing a sighof relief. “I was hoping like hell I didn’t dream you saying that while I was out. I love you too, Isabella, more than I can say with words. You’reitfor me. You, me, us. It’s everything.”

“And that’s not just the concussion talking?” I joke through the ball of emotions in my throat, making Lennox chuckle in that low register that sets all my senses off.

He shakes his head. “I think I’ve loved you since the day you rear-ended me and then called me an asshole, baby.”

“You keep talking like that and you’re liable to sweep me off my feet,” I tease.

Lennox looks pointedly at the floor where my feet most definitely are not. “I thought I already had.”

“Nox?” I ask quietly, biting my lip. “Is this the part where you kiss me?” I smile up at him, the heat infusing his eyes is reflected in mine.

“I think it just might be,” he breathes.

I lift my head as he lowers his and we meet in the middle for the kind of kiss that makes me glad I don’t have to stand on my own two feet. I don’t know how long we kiss and taste each other, making up for what we’ve missed in the past weeks. What I do know is that I lose myself in him. And from the way Lennox groans when I pause to take a breath, I think he feels the same.

That’s when the outside world comes rushing back in, loudly. The whole arena is on its feet cheering and I blush as I realize everyone has just seen me making out with Lennox. There are wolf whistles and applause, making Lennox chuckle and I look up to see we’re on the big screen and live on ESPN.

“Oh my God.” I hide my face against Lennox’s neck, feeling him laugh.

“What’s the matter, darlin’?” His voice goes full Southern drawl. “You embarrassed to be seen with me?”

I lift my head to see him grinning and he looks so damn pleased with himself and more than just a little bit like the cat who got the cream. And I’m totally fine with being the cream.

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