Page 103 of Ruthless Alpha Beast
She nods.
I don’t expect her to forgive me anytime soon; I know that I don’t deserve it.
“You don’t have to respond now,” I say. “I don’t expect anything from you, but I do hope one day you’ll be able to forgive me.”
Her eyes meet mine again, wide and glistening, and for a moment, the world stills.
I hear her heartbeat, the shortness of her breath.
“I forgive you,” she says.
Her response is completely unexpected. I blink, sure that maybe I’ve misheard her.
“You forgive me?”
Tara nods. She looks determined, but still as though the decision was a difficult one to make. There’s a tortured look in her eyes that makes my heart ache.
“Maybe I shouldn’t, I don’t know, maybe I’m completely crazy for allowing myself to even be in the same space as you again. But you make it hard not to want to. You have a hold on me.”
Her voice trails off.
I shake my head. “But Tara, I don’t want that to be why. I don’t want to manipulate you or control you, I mean what I say.”
“I know that,” she swallows. “I know that you’ve changed. I can see that you’ve changed. And this Jasper now is the Jasper I choose to forgive. You’ve hurt me so much, more than anyone, but I can’t live in that past. I have to move on. And if you’ve taught me anything, well, I also have to trust.”
She pauses, gazing deeply into my eyes. “I forgive you, Jasper. I do.”
.
Her words tear something open inside of me. I swallow hard, staring at her like she’s some miracle.
Because she is.
Forgiveness is one of the things that humans do better than us.
It’s the heightened empathy or patience, I’m not sure. But I love that about her.
“Tara...”
Her name comes out broken, and I step closer to her, my chest brushing hers.
The energy between us is too strong for me to control anymore.
“You don’t know what that means to me,” I murmur, lifting my hand to brush her cheek.
The scattered light shining through the trees hits her face at angles that make her look majestic.
As though she’s part of this forest too.
Her eyes flutter shut, her lips parting, welcoming me in.
My forehead lowers to reach hers as my palms cup her face gently, savoring how sacred she is.
Our breaths move in unison. It’s as though we’ve synced up into one consciousness, one heartbeat. I want her so much.
She reaches for me a little with her lips, just one micro-movement, and desperately, I close the space between us.
As her mouth grazes against mine, I take a deep breath, the taste of her even better than I remembered.
