Page 98 of Lust
The sun rays from the window blinds drew horizontal stripes on her face, caramel skin shimmering. Her hair, which was spun in a bun, now cascaded down to her shoulders. She looked like a bride in her white summer dress rather than a hospital-bound patient.
No. Not a bride.
She looked like an angel that had reclaimed her throne in Heaven.
“I asked for you earlier,” she said huskily. “No one could find you. Where did you go?”
“Not far, Angel,” I replied, cautiously moving closer.
I had already come so close to losing her that I was worried it’d take one rushed movement for her to disappear forever. Dipping my knee into the hospital bed, I sat with my body turned to her. “Thought I had lost you forever,” I added lamely.
“Yeah,” she tutted. “I’m not dying until I make you pay. I have already come up with five things, and they are all so awful that I’ll even give you hints.” She started counting things off with her fingers. “First of all, I’d be very careful about your morning coffee from now on—”
My lips smashed against hers, my heart bursting with bright light. I had kissed her so many times before but never like this. Like we had infused into one.
She leaned back from the kiss; all traces of previous humor were now gone. “Tris, if you ever hurt anyone again—”
“Never again.” I went back to her lips for more, kissing her over and over. “I swear it on you. I swore it on our baby. Tell me that you believe me.”
Sara searched my eyes to find the truth in them. With some reluctance, she nodded slowly, not without talking my ears off about how she planned to make me pay for my past mistakes.
Apparently, after she woke, Sara found out about the pregnancy, something that made her as happy as it had made me. She also remembered that I had jumped to save her. She was filled with confusion over her actions. Sara wasn’t the type to consider such things as ending her life, but I knew the call of temptation a little too well to press on the matter.
The sequence of events after she woke up was followed by a conversation with Michael, giving Sara a new lease on life. The optimism she lost had returned, though she wouldn’t disclose what she and Michael had discussed.
I was okay with it as long as she forgave me.
Her suspicion was warranted after everything I had done, but I hoped she could see the sincerity in my eyes. I had turned over a new leaf because of Sara. She was my strength. She had been all along.
I kissed her again and again with those promises, hoping to instill them in her. Though it was odd kissing her with half my face camouflaged with gauze. When Sara touched the tape covering my cheek, I winced.
“Does it hurt?”
I shook my head. “No, Angel.”
I had removed the gauze only once to find half my face nearly unrecognizable. The gash in my cheek was too deep for plastic surgery. My eyelids drooped from nerve damage, and the stitches were sure to leave scars for years.
When the doctors peeled off the bandages, and I saw my new face, I had been too distracted by Sara’s recovery to care. No longer was I worried about my image or concerned with vanity. I had simply covered up the wounds with gauze and medical tape.
But now that Sara was awake and peeling the tape off, I realized that the one thing I had to offer her—my looks—was gone. What reason did she have to love me now?
I gently grabbed her hands. “I’ve to warn you. It’s not the face of the man you remember.”
“I want to see,” she insisted, removing the last of the gauze.
I held my breath while she inspected my face for what seemed like an eternity.
If she lied and said it wasn’t so bad, I’d know. She was a shit liar.
If she turned away in disgust, it’d break me in half.
If she showed me pity, it would gut me.
There was only one correct response that would tell me this wasn’t a deal-breaker. And by God, she was the perfect woman because that’s how Sara reacted. With the perfect response.
“Uff, that’s rough,” she said, tilting her head to study the scar better. “Does this mean that I’m finally hotter than you?”
My lips quirked.
