Grace


I opened my front door, thinking maybe Cy wanted to pin a day for our next date. I looked up and gasped at what awaited me. Black and blue. My black and blue.

The colors loomed in front of me, and my heart—stone still after two whole days—exploded back to life in my chest, forcing me to draw a violent gulp of air. The black nearly hit the top of my doorframe while the blue blazed intensely, warming my face with its heat.

He leaned down to me and spoke. His voice. The gravel, my gravel, is back. It's angry and husky and accusatory and I can't help the way my spine pushed me towards it. As pleasant as Cy's voice is, my body propelled itself towards Wayne's deep timbre.

He had spied on my date. He was demanding to know how I could let Cy kiss me. The man who found someone else was furious that I was trying to do the same.

It felt as though the whole world had been yanked out from under me. My beautiful sweetheart was here. My body reactivated and sang with relief. My soul rejoiced in seeing its other half. And my heart continued to pump happily, assuming that all was well again.

My brain shut it all down.

I asked where Tiffany was. He looked flummoxed, like he didn't even know who I was talking about. He pushed passed her and focused on Cy's kiss.

"And why the hell shouldn't I let him touch me?" I asked angrily. No, the rest of me shouted at my brain. No no no no! But my brain had the helm.

"He's kind. He's smart. He's funny." The rest of me started screaming. Screaming so loud I was certain he could hear it. I shouted it down as I poked him hard in the chest.

"And you've clearly moved on! Give me one good reason why I shouldn't be with him."

He grabbed me and pulled me into the gravity of his arms. My brain wailed in terror while everything else howled with pleasure. Yes! Home! We're home. Cloves and notes and offers to drive and dimpled chins and black and blue! Home!

"He's not me," the gravel informed me. And suddenly his lips—his warm, wonderful lips—were annihilating Cy's kiss on my cheek, burning it away with so much passion and demand that I nearly passed out. "Only me," he hissed against me.

Yes! Only him! We want him! Give him to us or we'll destroy you! We'll never work again! We belong to him! No one else! HIM!

But my brain is smarter than the rest of me. And my brain is cruel. It whispered a word and stunned everything else into agonized silence.

Tiffany.

I shoved at him, only to pull him back. "Fuck you." My brain's hideous reminder made me say. His lips, so tempting, are suddenly thick with her presence. "What about here?" I touched them. "Has she been here?"

I kissed him. I rebranded him. My lips seared her touch just as surely as Wayne's did Cy's.

"Or here?" Horrified, I pulled his shirt clear from his throat. The notch dipped down prominently between his bones. He swallowed. The notch dipped lower. I took it as a greeting. It knows me. It misses me. It hates Tiffany and I love it all the more for its loyalty. "Has she been here?"

I kissed my property and moaned with miserable glee. His salty skin. So warm. I tasted him ravenously. I filled the notch with my tongue. His littlest weakness. And suddenly I know. Don't ask me how, but Tiffany, whoever she is, has not touched him here. This notch is still mine. I rejoiced as I continued to lave it with every ounce of love and longing that I've stored all these weeks.

He's hers. Not yours. You gave him to her.

I cried out and shoved him away again. We're going in circles. And he's with someone new. I refuse to torture myself a moment longer.

"Get out. Don't follow me again, Wayne. I mean it."

My extreme reactions have stunned him. Astonishment roiled across his handsome face. He reached for me. I can't allow that. I'm hanging on by a thread as it is.

I grabbed my phone. He knew what I meant. Desperate, he reached for me again. I flipped it open. I know that if he pushes any harder, I'll fold. I'll let him stay. I'll hold him every second of the night, sobbing my eyes out and begging him to leave her and just stay with me forever.

His eyes collapsed under the weight of his sorrow. He nodded. He turned and left.

My baby. He always did everything I asked.