Chapter 19
Chapter Nineteen
FALLON
Our Next Adventure
From the moment I saw her, I wanted her.
Was obsessed with her. And somewhere along the way, my black heart fell in love with her.
I didn’t mean to. God knows, I certainly didn’t want to.
Love was a curse for someone like me, but fate laughed in my face and told me tough shit—just like fate destined her to belong to Jay and Ry but never to me.
How many times had I fantasized about how she would feel in my arms? How soft her skin was. The sound of her moans. Nothing could have prepared me for the reality of her.
Elizabeth tenderly glides her fingertips over my face, like she’s putting every detail to memory. A soft stroke of my jaw, my lips, up my cheek to my temple. It feels so good to be touched like this. Like I’m worthy. Like I’m hers .
“We’re really doing this?” she asks, hope blooming in the smile she graces me with.
Lightly clasping my hands at her lower back, I drop my forehead to hers, still in disbelief that I get to hold her like this.
“Damn straight we are.”
She blows out a pent-up breath, her hands fisting the cotton fabric of my shirt. “I’m going to need you to be patient with me. It’s been a long time since—” She trails off.
“I know, Kitten.”
“I’m probably going to mess up a lot.”
“Have you met me?” I reply with a self-deprecating laugh.
She smiles, and my heart painfully swells at the sight. “Completely damaged and unrepairable, but perfect in a non-perfect way.”
Her words bring back memories of the fight we had in Noreurljósavegur about the meaning of love.
“You say I don’t know you, Kitten, but you don’t know me.” My fingers grip her flesh tighter.
“You won’t hurt me, Fallon,” she rasps out.
I release my hold around her neck, and she slumps forward on the wall.
“Yes, I will.”
She turns around and cups my face in her hands. The contact makes me jerk.
“No, you won’t. Ask me to close my eyes and tell you who I see.”
“No,” I grit out and push her back against the wall once again, causing a picture frame to fall off and smash to the floor.
“I see you , Fallon.”
“Stop it, Elizabeth.”
“Fallon—”
“Goddamn you.” Taking what I’ve coveted for so long, I kiss her.
It’s not a pretty kiss or a nice kiss. It’s not a playful kiss. It’s a kiss filled with anger and hurt.
I plunder her mouth, taking what I want, not giving a damn if she’ll hate me for it.
She looks up at me with those soulful green eyes, her lips swollen and red. “You shouldn’t have done that.”
“You make me so goddamn crazy, Elizabeth.”
“You still shouldn’t have done that.”
“You wouldn’t shut up.”
We both start laughing.
“We’re so messed up,” she half-heartedly replies, shaking her head.
My arms go around her waist, and I hold on to her for dear life.
“Completely damaged and unrepairable,” I agree.
“But perfect in a non-perfect way.”
“You were right, by the way,” I tell her.
“That’s a good lesson to remember.” I stand absolutely still when she rises on her tiptoes and presses her mouth to mine. It’s nothing like the fiery kiss we just shared, but the sweetness of it completely destroys me just the same. “I think I recall you promising me lunch.”
“I did.”
She slips her hand down my arm and twines our fingers together, the profound connection instantaneous. It’s such a simple gesture that couples do every day, but for me, it holds a greater significance.
“Are you going to tell me where we’re going?”
“Thought I’d keep it as a surprise,” I reply, hyperfocused on the way her hand feels in mine as she pulls me into the kitchen.
Not letting go, she’s able to tuck her phone one-handed into the back sleeve of a small crossbody purse lying on the counter. “Do I need to change?”
I take in her tight yoga pants and tank top, and my mind immediately dives down into the gutter with thoughts of her naked and writhing underneath me.
“Not unless you want to.”
At my dark timbre, her gaze meets mine, and she swallows. Licks her lips. Lips I’m dying to kiss again.
She longingly stares at my mouth for a beat before saying, “I’m ready for our next adventure.”
“Good answer.” I plan to give her a lifetime of them.
As soon as we step out onto the front porch, she sees the Ducati.
“Seriously?”
At her reaction, I want to strangle Aurora for suggesting it. “We can take your car if you’re not comfortable riding a motorcycle.”
She lets go of my hand and rushes down the steps. Her blonde hair whips around her when she spins and walks backward the remaining five feet to the bike, crooking her finger at me. “I’m driving.”
I didn’t know she knew how. Just another facet of New Elizabeth that I get to learn about. There is so much I missed out on and want to know. Ry’s correspondences over the years helped, but there’s a lot he left out. Like teaching her how to ride a motorcycle.
Taking the handlebars, she throws one toned leg over the saddle, and the sight of her on the sleek, matte-black Ducati turns me on.
I am in so much trouble with this woman.
“You don’t know where we’re going,” I remind her, unlocking the hard case attached to the back and taking out the extra helmet I brought just for her.
“Aurora’s?”
“How can you tell?” With care, I slip the helmet over her head and adjust the chin strap until it’s secure.
Her moss-green eyes watch my face the entire time, the sunlight making the dark halo around her irises appear sapphire blue. Fuck, she’s beautiful.
“The fact that it’s pink and has ‘Badass Bitch’ written on the side.”
“The moniker fits both women.” She laughs when I flick the visor of the helmet down.
After putting mine on, I slide in front of her, pop the kickstand, and pull the bike upright. Widening her legs, she scoots in close and wraps her arms around me, her fingers curling into my shirt and pressing into my abs, the heat of her at my back doing crazy things to my sanity.
“Don’t let go,” I tell her through the helmet’s built-in microphone.
“Never again,” she says and snuggles in close, but her words aren’t lost on me.
It still feels surreal—me and her. I’d spent so much time standing on the sidelines of her life, watching from a distance, wanting what I knew I couldn’t have.
I think about the past, about all the mistakes and missed chances that have led us here, and for the very first time, I let myself believe that I am no longer doomed to roam alone in this world.
Elizabeth has told me more than once that I was her hero, but in truth, she saved me.
“Don’t hold back. I want to feel it.”
“Yes, ma’am.” Torquing the handlebar, I rev the engine and take off to the sound of her delighted, unguarded laughter. I will replay that sound in my mind for years to come, cherishing it like a precious keepsake because every single one of her smiles, every laugh, is a precious gift.
I take it slow until we get to the end of her drive, but as soon as we turn onto the two-lane country road, I open the throttle.
The tires hum against the sun-warmed asphalt as the motorcycle roars down the rural winding road, the verdant countryside unfolding in a blur around us, like a living postcard.
Elizabeth leans in slightly at the first curve, and I steal a glance at her reflection in the side mirror. The ends of her hair fly wild in the wind, the loose strands dancing like golden ribbons in the breeze, but it’s the carefree smile on her face that paints the most beautiful picture.
“God, I love this,” she says through the mic.
I experience a moment of panic when one of her hands releases its grip around my waist, and she plays her fingers through the fast-rushing air.
“Ryder and I would go for long drives and flip a coin to decide which direction to turn. We got lost a lot doing that. But those times were the best because we discovered so many new places we never knew existed. It’s amazing how you can live almost your entire life somewhere and miss out on so much because you never knew it was there. ”
It takes a half hour to get to the Montgomery estate, but instead of passing through the iron gates and traveling up the private drive to the house, I circumvent the property and come in from the south along an unmarked dirt road that doesn’t show up on any map.
“I don’t recognize anything. Where are we?” Elizabeth asks when I ease the bike under the shade of a giant sweetgum.
“This is the back of the property. The house is about a half mile that way,” I reply, pointing in the general direction.
“We’re at the Montgomery place?”
I debated about bringing her out here, not wanting to rekindle bad memories about Peter.
Right before I left, I had the pond where his body was dumped filled in—erased that motherfucker from existence so that he could never be found—and let nature retake the new earth and do with it as she wished.
I don’t go near that part of the estate anymore.
“If you want to leave?—”
Reading my thoughts, she immediately interjects, “That night doesn’t define either of us. And as you well know, I’ve been at the house on numerous occasions to see Aurora and Trevor and Knox and Butch. Cookouts, birthday parties. Would you like for me to continue?”
“No.”
“Good.”
I wait for her to dismount before I engage the kickstand, and I immediately miss the feel of her wrapped around me. Her pert nose scrunches as she fumbles with the clasp for the helmet. Christ, she’s adorable. I gently move her hands out of the way and do it for her.
“Thanks.”
I can’t not stare when she bends over at the waist, then arches back up, tousling the wavy locks of her hair. Snagging her by the waistband of her yoga capris, I roughly haul her to me and kiss the shit out of her. Because I can now.
“ Jesus, Fallon ,” she breathes, eyes glazed and lips gorgeously kiss-swollen.
I brush my nose across her soft cheek. “How are you at climbing?”
“Like rock climbing?”
“Kind of.”
“Kind of?” she replies with an incredulous lilt.
“Sure. Let’s go with that.”
A soft, airy laugh escapes her lips when I take her hand, her fingers threading through mine as if they’ve always belonged there.