La’Nova #3
“So I convinced myself leaving was the only thing I could do for you.” A bitter laugh escaped me.
“If it makes you feel any better…” I backhanded my never ending tears.
“I didn’t even know I was pregnant when I left…”
His expression changed instantly to something I couldn’t read.
“I was so scared, I wrote a letter that I never sent off to you… I even contacted your mother and told her, hoping that she would tell you…. Still I was wrong.” My voice dropped into something barely audible.
Seconds started to feel like minutes. My eyes focused on the fluffy white carpet instead of his heated gaze.
Just when I got ready to give him my back because the rejection of my confession hurt without no response from him.
I stood there crying and craving to feel his warm embrace.
Then his voice finally broke through the silence.
“Come here, Nova baby.” His voice came out rough enough to shake something loose inside of me.
I moved fast, practically tripping over my feet like I forgot how to properly walk.
A broken sound left my throat when he opened his arms slightly for me.
My knees nearly buckled from the relief of it alone.
The second I reached him, my hand flattened against his hard chest to steady myself.
The heat of him radiated beneath my palm.
He felt strong, the smell of him so familiar and comforting as fresh tears stinged my eyes all over again.
God, I missed him… I missed this… the security of him… the feel of him… and the seductive masculine smell of him…
My eyes fluttered through the tears as my finger slowly dragged upward until they reached the deep scar running along the middle of his neck.
The roughness beneath my fingertips made my heart skip a beat.
I glanced up at him and his eyes was already locked on mine while my fingertips traced his scar gently.
Then he leaned down… and I stopped breathing.
He pressed his smooth lips against the deep scar on my forehead. The kiss and magnetic pull that his aura had over me caused me to shatter again. My eyes squeezed shut as emotion ripped through my chest so violently I almost sobbed out weakly again.
This was too intense, too emotional. Something I often strayed away from since I was so used of displaying strength and survival.
Luca’s hand slid behind my neck, he squeezed tightly then released when he felt the tension.
“I love you,” he whispered against my wounded skin.
His words wrapped around my damaged heart so tightly it felt like it stopped beating.
“But you hurt me.” His grip flexed slightly on my neck.
A shaky breath escaped me as I watched my tears glide down his eight pack.
“I know,” I whispered painfully.
His thumb stroked the back of my neck slowly while his other hand settled on my shoulder. He kneaded at the tension there like he could physically feel how long the tension had been building there since the last massage he gave me.
“You hurt me real bad, Nova baby,” he admitted quietly.
His raspy whisper sounded weighed down now.
“But I can’t sit here and pretend I don’t understand why you ran either,” he continued.
Shock coursed throughout me as I continued to relax under the pressure of his hands kneading away my locked-up tension. Seconds later, I felt his hand leave my shoulder and drift down to my now empty stomach.
“I’m not mad at you for running… I missed you but was mad at myself,” he confessed.
I lifted my head to look into his eyes.
“Why?” I asked.
“Because that day, like a coward… I planned on telling Roy to send you away. I felt guilty for being so deeply in love with you. I wasn’t raised to hesitate.
I knew soon as I found out that you was the one to pull the trigger that I wouldn’t be able to kill you, Nova…
. I also came to realization that you was my cause and cure. ” He sighed roughly.
“Besides the twins… you lit a fire inside of me that made me want to do more… I never thought about fixing my voice till you…” He looked away from me.
I felt his thumb brush lightly against my stomach.
“It confused me badly because I tried to hate you but couldn’t…” His voice sounded like it was fading away.
“Then after you left, I start thinking even deeper about my father’s death… so deep I ended up finding out that you played a part in it, no doubt… but you weren’t the official reason why he died.”
My lips parted, shakily. I frowned and felt my body grow cold from the quick space he put between us.
“Get dressed, I’ll get Ms. Macy to look after Novae. I want to take you out to the garden to talk.”
He walked out the room, leaving my head spinning with his words.
“Lord, I pray I don’t have to beat this nigga’s ass,” I murmured to myself, wiping my tears away.
Before I made a move to get dress like he demanded, I reminded myself to make Luca take accountability for blowing all my shit up.
After an entire month of suffocating silence, common ground and talking just had been established.
A huge part of me felt relieved that the door that appeared closed and locked down was now open.