Page 86 of The Fantasy League
In a sense, I felt the same way too. It didn’t excuse what he did, but finally getting closure after all these years felt freeing.
“So nothing between us was a lie?” she croaked out with a wobbly voice. “Please tell me this wasn’t all a lie.”
“Do you remember when I asked you to go on a date with me?” My voice was hushed just low enough for her to hear. “I wasn’t kidding when I asked you on a date then. I only played it off because you rejected me… four times.”
Her breath hitched. “What?” she whispered-shouted, flashing her big brown eyes up to meet mine. “So you didn’t throw out all of my food because you hated me?”
“No, Red.” I couldn’t help but let out a laugh. “I was so goddamn nervous around you that my appetite disappeared.” I brought my hands up to cup her face. The corners of my lips turned up, reminiscing on how nervous I was when Scarlett first started working for me. “You made me so nervous that I was a fucking mess every time I tried to talk to you.”
She didn’t respond, peeking up at me through her long black lashes with a smile before nuzzling her head between my pecs.
Exactly where she was meant to be.
I held her gently and rested my chin on the crown of her head. We stayed like that, in the comfort of each other, for long enough that our breaths began to sync.
Tilting her chin up, her big brown doe eyes looked up to meet mine once again. I let out a sigh to compose myself and pressed my forehead gently against hers.
“Scarlett, this was never a lie for me. This,us, was never a lie.Willnever be a lie.” I swallowed down the lump in my throat. Her eyes searched mine, trying to find an ounce of doubt in my words.
She wouldn’t find any. Not a single fucking drop.
Until this moment, I didn’t know it was possible to love someone so much that you felt like you couldn’t breathe. Love was suffocating. Yet, somehow in the absence of my breath, she was simultaneously the air that filled my lungs and I’d forever be longing for more.
“I’m so in love with you, Red. How could there ever be anyone else?”
Her mouth curved into a smile, and she pressed a kiss against my lips. It was soft and tender, just like her.
I returned her kiss hungrily and she slipped her tongue between my lips, making me groan. “I love you,” I whispered, breaking apart from our kiss briefly before going in for another one.
“Say it again,” she breathed out against my lips.
“I love you, Red.” Scarlett pressed a soft kiss against my lips. “I’ll say it as many times as you want to hear it.”
“I love you… so much.” Fuck if my heart didn’t soar out of my chest at the words I’d waited to hear pass between her lips for eleven months. I lifted her off her feet and spun her around in my arms.
“So…. now is probably the time to tell you that I burned the dress your sister gave me.”
“You what?”
“Burned it,” she said with a straight face. “To a crisp. Removed from the face of the earth.”
“Why?”
“Ikindathought she was your ex after you kicked me out of your house that one time. You were an asshole for that, by the way.”
I couldn’t disagree with her on that.
“You thought I datedmy sister?”
“Well, in my defense, I didn’t know that she was your sister.” She had a point, but it was still fucking disgusting. Aera told me she vomited after her fiancé showed her the article about us. Couldn’t fucking blame her. “And second, don’t look so shocked. The entire world was convinced you guys were dating six days ago, and until twenty minutes ago, neither of you denied it, so it was a valid assumption.”
“Fair.”
“You should probably tell her about the dress before you introduce me to her. Do you think she’ll hate me for it?”
The breath was knocked out of my lungs. “You want to meet her?”
“Yeah, of course. I’d like to meet your mom and Steve too.” Her eyes softened as she wound her arms inside my jacket and around my back. “Only if you want me to though.”
