Chapter 27 – VENOM
Chapter
Twenty-Seven
VENOM
The regret is like a whisper in my ear until it’s screaming so loudly, I flinch.
I should go back up there right now and tell her. Tell her how painfully in love I am with her. But I can’t. I can’t move from this spot I planted myself in within the comfort of my greenhouse.
Hearing her tell me she loves me set my feelings on fire. Absolute burning agony. Because what popped into my head at such an inopportune time was how I have yet to give Ivy her freedom. She told me she loves me while I still hold her captive in my home, and that nearly wrecked me.
Will she still love me when I tell her she’s free?
Will the sound of freedom be louder than the love she feels for me?
For a moment, she was almost mine.
I fall asleep in my recliner, among my plants and pets, where I’ve always belonged.
Morning arrives quicker than I expected.
I follow the sound of laughter, Ivy’s addictive laughter, until I reach the kitchen and find her and Ev sitting at the table. Evelyn is smiling at her as Ivy covers her mouth to stifle her giggles.
“What’s so amusing this early?”
“I was just telling Ivy about that time Mya tripped you in the greenhouse and you fell ass-first into the rose bush. I had to pull thorns out of your ass for an hour.”
“I don’t think that’s something she needed to hear about, Ev.”
“It most certainly is!” Ivy says through laughs. “I can picture it so clearly.”
“My ass? If you want to see it, I’ll gladly show it to you.”
Evelyn grins, a sweet dimple appearing in her cheek as Ivy catches her breath from her laughing fit.
“Can I talk to you?” I ask Ivy.
Her face turns serious, then she slowly rises from her seat and follows me into the other room.
“Evelyn is going into town later for some groceries. If you’d like, you can go with her.”
She eyes me suspiciously. “Okay.”
I hand her the keys to my Mercedes. “And when you're done, you’re free to leave. The car is yours. You can go wherever you want.”
“What?” Her expression nearly transforms to that fiery anger of hers I know well.
“I’m saying you’re free, Ivy. You’re no longer my prisoner. Isn’t that what you wanted?”
She flinches with what appears to be shock and then it turns to anger. “Are you stupid?” she asks, placing her hands on her curvy hips I love so much.
“Excuse me?”
“I mean, you must be. I just told you I’m in love with you last night and now you’re telling me I am free to leave?”
“You’ve asked for your freedom many times before,” I remind her.
“Yea, that was before! Before… everything. You must be joking. Tell me you're joking, that this is just another game.”
“No more games, Ivy. I don’t want to keep you prisoner any longer,” I say; my patience for this difficult conversation nearing its end.
“You don’t want to keep me anymore?”
“Ivy—”
“Stop calling me by my name! Call me beast or beastie. Call me yours. Just don’t call me by my name right now.” Her eyes begin to well up, her expression looking pained.
I step closer to her and press a hand to her cheek. “I never saw you coming, little beast. You surprised me and I’m not used to that.”
“And now you’re just pushing me away, after everything?” She blows out an exasperated breath. “You told me my heart was safe with you! If I loved you harder, could it be enough? Could I be enough to make you want to keep me?”
I step away from her as if I’ve been slapped and shake my head. “It has nothing to do with that.”
“Fuck, Venom.” She throws her hands up. “It has everything to do with that!”
“Stop.”
“No, what the fuck are you thinking right now?”
I run a hand through my hair. “That’s the thing, darlin’, when it comes to you, I can’t fucking think clearly.
I can barely form a coherent thought. You cloud my judgment; you make me second-guess everything.
You’re poison pumping through my veins, and I fear what will happen when it finally reaches my heart. ”
She steps forward, placing a hand over my chest. “Just let me in.”
I turn away from her in frustration. “You think I haven’t let you in already?
” I pull at my hair before turning back to face her.
“You’ve gotten closer to me than anyone ever has.
I wish I could say it was by choice but you”—I place my hand over hers on my chest—“you’ve managed to sink your vicious teeth into me, releasing a type of poison I’m not immune to.
It pumps through my veins, the chambers of my heart.
Your delicious poison has filled my lungs; your wicked touch tames the flames inside me and silences my demons.
” I clutch her hand tighter. “Make no mistake, sweet beast, you are deep within me. So much so that if I were to try to cleanse you from my system, I would most definitely perish. This is who I really am. A man, utterly consumed by the woman he loves.” She takes a step back, both our hands falling to our sides.
“But at my own peril, I have to free you and let you go.”
“So, you love me?”
I close the distance between us and grab her face. “Yes, you infuriating little beast, I fucking love you. That is why I cannot keep you prisoner any longer. I can't allow you to love me while I still hold you captive.”
“So, I’m free? Right here and now, I’m a free woman?”
I let her go and stand tall, clenching my jaw, hands fisted. “Yes.”
“Okay.”
“Alright.”
“I’m going to the store with Evelyn later and then…
I’ll be coming back… home. To you. Because that's what I choose as a free woman. I choose you. I choose us.” She steps closer and places a hand to my chest. “I don’t love you because I’ve been your prisoner, Venom.
I fell in love with you under a glass dome ceiling surrounded by nature, between fighting and stolen glances, I fell in love with you in a room full of books sharing our pasts and truths.
I fell in love with you slowly but deeply because you see me and I see you.
” She lets out a breath. “I love you and I don’t want to be without you, ever. ”
My heart nearly explodes out of my chest at her words and the way she’s looking at me. No woman in my life has ever looked at me the way Ivy has lately, especially right now.
Everything that matters to me lies within those vibrant green eyes.
“And so, the beauty fell in love with the beast. I, being the beauty of course,” I say, smirking.
She rolls her eyes. “Shut up and kiss me already.”
I grab her by her nape and slam my lips across hers.
Her soft moans fill my mouth as I pick her up and set her down on the living room couch.
Desperate to be inside her, I take her quick and hard.