Page 273 of The Perfect Spiral
“I could really use you here right now Pop. Knox just told everyone that he’s in love with me... I don’t know what to say to him.....
I knew I fell for him yesterday when we were alone watching the sunrise..... talking about you.... when I stared into those blue haunting eyes of his, I knew I was in trouble. But I don’t get why he’s in love with me?
He could have any girl in the entire world and he says that on live TV. What would you say if you were here?”
“He would tell you he already knew-”
Hearing that soft creamy voice behind me I froze. How did he know I’d be here? I slowly stand up and turn to face this handsome guy standing across the other side of the lighthouse.
“I told him before he passed away. I told him I was in love with you baby doll. But he knew, he watched me all those years admiring you. He caught me too many times staring at you.
Smiling at you. Secretly loving you from a distance. He knew.” He allows the softest smile to rest on his red lips.
“How did you know I’d be here?” I ask him quietly.
Sending me an even bigger smile over the twirled steps leading up to the top. “Alex, I know you. You always spoke about this place. It was either here or his grave, but my mom told me you left the car at the house and ran. So I figured you’d be here”
Both of us are stationary and watching each other. My heart kicks up a notch and begins to act like an animal out in the wild. Unpredictable.
Feeling my heart beat wildly inside me pumping an unfamiliar feeling around my body. Filling energy around my veins. There’s a silence while he waits for me to say something. I don’t know what to say.
“I knew you’d run” he continues but stays planted with his hands in his pockets. Studying me.
“What can I say? I’m a runner” I shrug my shoulders looking out through the curvature of the windows once more. Hearing a soft chuckle from him, I smile at my joke.
I can faintly hear the waves crashing down below us and I feel a small draft of the warm air seeping through the cracks of the old lighthouse. Blowing my hair uncontrollably around my face and into the open air.
Feeling my chest tightening at the sight of him when I turn my head back to meet his heated gaze “Did you mean it-”
“Every word” he interrupts knowing what I was going to say. “Alex, I’m so in love with you. I have been in love with you since we first met. You were it when you sat next to me.
Your first words to me. Our first kiss. Our second kiss. That time when you kissed me back at Christmas. Our first date. When we made love to each other back in New York.
I fell harder and harder for you each day. You’re my first and only love” seeing him gulp down the lump in his throat making me copy him.
I all of a sudden feel the dryness inside my mouth. I lick my lips to try to help it, but I avail to no success.
“But why did you get back with Lauren? Knox, you really hurt me” I say timidly like I’m afraid to hear his answer. He sighs looking up at the ceiling then dropping his eyes back on me.
“Lauren blackmailed me into dating her again. When I said I did it to protect you. I meant it baby doll.
She had pictures of you... naked pictures and she threatened me to stay dating her and possibly make her my girlfriend or she would release them.
When you said that she was the girl Drew cheated on you with, it all made sense how she got those photos of you. I’ve handled it with my lawyers. She won’t expose you.
My team has wiped the photos clear with the help of a judge’s warrant to seize the revenge porn evidence. I told her to never bother me or you again and I won’t press any charges.
I regret not being able to do it all sooner, baby doll. You’re safe, the photos don’t exist anymore, even the copies Drew had”
I nod shifting my weight to my other foot. I exhale feeling a weight being lifted off my shoulders. I thank him making eye contact with him from a distance.
Maintaining the staring competition I feel my body start to sweat and my heart race. All this happening by him staring atme. I feel like I’m about to burst. The adrenaline is all too much for my small body.
The realization hits me like a moving train. Feeling my cheeks flush red.
I want him to be mine and I to be his.
I never would’ve thought I’d be in this position. Not in a million years. I’m the girl he wants. I’m the girl he loves. And he’s the guy I love. He’s my one. The one.
