Page 195 of Cross the Line
There’s no him without me. No me without him.
That’s the truth. The only one that matters. The one that, in spite of every storm we face, will never change.
It’s not my blood that courses through me, it’s his. His blood that keeps me living. His heartbeat that keeps me breathing. His love that forges my existence.
I’m desperately trying to hold on. To stave off the heat ratcheting higher and higher between us as his fingers knot into my tangled hair.
I can’t.
This is too good. Too perfect. Too everything I need and more.
And every choked breath that wracks through his chest into mine fills me with more of him than I’ve ever had. All of him. Every drop of his love.
Until I’m fuller than I’ve ever been. With his seed and his affection and every beautiful part that makes him the man he is.
The man I have loved all my life.
The man I will always love.
Long past my last breath.
CHAPTER 52
ELI
“I’m sorry,” Finley whispers into my chest. Delicate fingers drawing mindless circles on my skin. “I’m sorry I freaked out, that I wasn’t better about?—”
“Don’t apologize. It’s a lot to take in,” I tell her, coiling my arm tighter around her.
She’s already so snug to my side with her leg hitched over me that my hold shifts her all the way on top of me. Her heart is pounding so hard, I feel it hammer into my chest.
“I know you’re angry, Fin, but we can’t allow this to fester, to ruin our happiness…”
At my words, she tenses. Her forearms fold over my chest as she lifts her face to mine.
“I’m not angry, Eli.” Her voice is low and cold. “I’m raging. I am… fuck, I… Ihatehim.”
It’s in her eyes. I can see it roiling—an endless stormy midnight. As much as I love her fire and protective nature, I don’t want to waste any of it on the piece of shit that hurt us both.
“He’s not worth the thought, sweet girl.”
“He’s not worth shit,” she growls. I think we’re on the same page until she states, “But he’s not getting away with it. You can’t let him.”
“Okay. What do you want me to do?” I ask, picking at the thread of her logic.
I know that it’ll unravel and she’ll see things for what they are—a pointless battle that eats time and gives nothing back except more pain. We could spend that time living and building our future.
“Report it,” Finley replies with a resolute shrug. “He deserves to pay for what he did to you.”
“Alright, I’ll report it, and what next?” I hold her stare as she opens her mouth, closes it, rethinks. “What happens when I report it? How does it change anything? How do we prove it?”
“There has to be something we can do, Eli. A way Presley gets his comeuppance.” The blaze in her eyes dulls under a sudden flood of tears. “This can’t be it. It can’t… No, I won’t let him get away with hurting you. I won’t.”
“Fin…” I breathe deep, sliding up the headboard until I’m sitting and she’s in my lap. I owe her the undiluted truth of how outsiders will read the situation. “It’s been years since it happened. There are pictures of me and another guy that night that coincidentally outed me to the world. So not only does it appear like I was purposefully hiding who I am, but now we are public. We’re in a relationship that most people don’t understand. We’re an anomaly in the eyes of the world…”
“It shouldn’t matter who or what we are. Nobody deserves to be… to… what he did.” Her breath thins to a thread.
“The fact is that I’m not a straight man, Finley, and Presley is. It’ll be his word against mine, and with all the shit that’s happened…”
