8. Ben

Istretch and yawn, my body deliciously heavy and sore. I reach my hands out and frown when all I feel is cool sheets.

I open my eyes. “Steph?”

No answer. I sit up and stare around the room, surprised when I don’t see her clothes anywhere.

I jump from the bed and trip when my legs get tangled in the sheets. “Stephanie! Where the hell are you?”

No answer.

I slam out of the bedroom in a panic and groan when I see that my office door is open.

“Oh shit!”

I run inside and groan when I see the pictures all around the room and the dog-eared copy of her book sitting on my desk.

I grab my phone and call her, swearing under my breath when she doesn’t pick up. Slamming the receiver down, I jog to my closet and get dressed faster than I even thought was humanly possible.

But it’s not fast enough and I know it.

I get to her house and see her car parked there but the trunk is open and two bags are inside it.

The door opens and I stalk up to her, wincing when I see her red, tear-filled eyes.

“What the hell, Steph?”

“You told me that you didn’t read my book! Told me that you didn’t know anything about it. Why? Why would you lie about that?”

“Because I wanted you to fall in love with me and I knew the fact that that damn book was out there would be a problem. It would make you nervous and you wouldn’t believe me when I said I loved you. I’ve always loved you.”

I reach out and grasp her arms. “It’s only because I didn’t want you to know how stupidly desperate I am about you. I have read that damn book so many times that I shredded one copy. It fell apart in my hands as I read it again.”

Her mouth falls open. “Why? Why would you read that piece of trash that much?”

I shake her lightly. “Because it’s the only way I felt close to you. I’ve been reading it until I read your own love for me between the lines. In all our times that I held you and you cried, in the way you always turn to me, I read that love! It’s the only thing that kept me going sometimes. I had faith from reading in between the lines and feeling you in those words that someday you’d come home to me.”

“Why didn’t you come for me?” She bites her lip and I zero in on her full lip, reaching up to tug her lip free.

“Because you deserved the time to realize your dreams and I knew that if fate was kind and right and I stayed faithful and hopeful, someday you’d come back to me. It had to be. It was fate. I was born to love you and take care of you. I was made to love you.”

Tears streak down her cheeks and she moves into my arms, her own tight around me. Sobs shake her slim shoulders and she whimpers. “I missed you so damn much and I didn’t even know it. But when I saw that damn book and knew you lied to me, all I could see was all the people who’ve been telling me one thing and then saying another behind my back. Nobody is honest with me anymore and I can’t take it! I just want the truth. I want people to realize that that book is my life and tearing it down all the time is tearing down my very existence.”

“Oh honey, they can’t understand our lives. They don’t know what you went through. Some people just can’t believe that there is evil like that out there in the world. That some people are just bad people and they will hurt you no matter how much you love them and how innocent you are. You can’t change how they think. All you can do is live your truth and let them get to know you, get to know what you’ve gone through. Answer their questions and then put it all out there. They’ll either believe you or they won’t. But Careless Whisper is not fiction. It’s your life, your story. Hell, it’s our story. The way we met.”

“You’re the first person who ever told me that he loved me.”

“I still remember that day.” I stare into her blue eyes and smile. “You were so pretty that day.”

“I was six.”

“Still beautiful. And I’ve loved you all this time and I always will.”

“I love you too, Benjie. I just didn’t know that’s what it was.”

“You never had love like I did. You didn’t recognize it. But never forget what it feels like because this is love. Our love.”

“It feels like home.”

I nod my head and rest my chin on her head, breathing in that sweet smell of her. Her short curls spring around me in soft spirals, golden and glistening. “You’re my home. And I’m yours. You’re all I need in this life.”

“And you’re everything to me. I don’t know why I stayed away all this time.”

“Because this place isn’t your home. It’s a place where some bad things happened and you tried to bury them and then when you couldn’t you brought them out to the light in hopes that that would heal your heart.”

“But you needed me.”

“And I needed you.”

“I want you to stay with me forever. I want you with me all the rest of my life and one of these days, I hope that you’ll raise my babies with me and we’ll show them how real love looks.”

Her brow lifts and she smirks. “Babies, huh?”

“A little girl with your smile and the way you look around you with so much wonder and hope.”

She smiles and leans into my chest, snuggling me tight. “And a little boy with your warm eyes and your heart as big as Texas.”

I lift her chin on my palm. “It doesn’t matter to me what we have. As long as they’re as happy as we’ve always been with each other. As long as they learn that love is a gift to be embraced and you can find it in the best places, places you never thought you’d find them.”

“And that fighting for your story is more important than everybody liking you.”

“Exactly.”

And I lean down and kiss her, running my tongue along her lips. She’s breathless and panting by the time I lift my head, her blue eyes burning with lust and love.

“Now. I haven’t seen your place yet.”

She grimaces. “I’m sure you remember what it always looked like.”

I smile softly. “All I ever saw was you.”

“Smooth talker.” She grins and tugs me to the house. “Fine. But don’t blame me if it’s your new nightmare.”

“Never. You could never be in my nightmares.”

And she leads me inside, her palm warm in mine as she tugs me to the bedroom and pushes me down, straddling me. I run my hands up and down her back, watching as her eyes close and she shivers.

“Tell me what you want,” I whisper to her.

“You. Only you.” Her blue eyes open, blazing down at me.

“You’ve always got me. And our story will definitely not end like the first part of your story. Our story is a beautiful romance that will last until I kiss your lips for the last time.”

She smiles. “Perfect. I love a happy ending!”