Chapter 16
CHAPTER
SIXTEEN
JULIUS
She suddenly looked down at the ground. The shame was obviously eating her alive.
“You have no idea what it was like waking up that morning you left me, searching for you the second my eyes opened. Thinking it was the start of a new day, a new life…” She wavered, clearing her throat.
She might have been physically standing there, but her mind was back in my bed, where I left her behind.
“I thought we could make a future together. I didn’t make love to you because I was trying to comfort you. I did it because I loved you and I couldn’t not be with you.” Her eyes swelled up with tears.
“I thought we’d… I guess I just thought the fairy tale, I let myself believe that maybe they do come true.
Maybe I could be one of the lucky ones… I grew up alone, and to go from there to you…
” She wiped away her tears. “It was everything. You were everything.” She hesitated again, taking a deep, steadying breath as she protectively wrapped her arms around her stomach, trying to hold in the emotions that threatened to spill.
I closed my eyes, waiting for the unknown and the inevitable to be spoken. Her hesitancy to expose her truths seared into my skin with each passing second. We weren’t even touching, and I could still feel her all over.
“Mouse, I can give you the life we were meant to have, the one you dreamed of,” I wholeheartedly replied, hanging on by a very thin thread.
I instinctively stepped toward her, longing to hold her in my arms. It physically pained me to be standing there with her, hearing her tell me everything I thought I wanted to know.
“Please don’t,” she urged, halting me. “I’m not telling you this to look for your comfort. That night meant everything to me. I gave you what had always belonged to you, and I’m not talking about my virginity. I’m talking about my heart. You showed me what love is, Julius. Not Kraven. You.”
I bowed my head, inhaling a solid breath, trying to gather my thoughts.
She looked broken when she emphasized, “You. Left. Me. I didn’t know if you were going to come back.
I’m not making excuses for my choices, but I’m simply trying to give you the truth because you deserve that.
This wasn’t some seedy act of revenge for you leaving.
Kraven and I stayed away from each other.
The times we were together, we looked for you. ”
She stepped toward me. “The morning of that night, I overheard Mrs. Bates in the bathroom of a restaurant, and I ran with Kraven chasing me. I ran so fast I fell, and he took care of me.”
It was then that I realized she was just as much a prisoner of my sins as I was.
“No number of apologies will change the fact that you left me. You didn’t even have the balls to tell me you were leaving.” Tears started streaming down her beautiful face, one right after the other.
She didn’t even try to hide it. She allowed them to flow loosely. I reached over to wipe them away.
Never expecting her to add, “It’s okay for you to hate me.”
ISLA
I hated that I was hurting him, but he needed to know the truth, and I could give him that. It was the least I could do.
“I could never hate you, Isla.” With the back of his fingers, he swept away my tears.
If I thought Julius couldn’t surprise me any more than he already had in the last few months, he totally ripped the rug out from under me with this one. In one quick fluid motion, he backed me up against a tree. I sucked in a breath at feeling the weight of him on me, making me weak in the knees.
“Mouse…” he rasped along my mouth. “You’re my forever.” He shifted his mouth to almost touch mine, lightly enough to where he was there in my space, but still leaving the desire of wanting his lips on mine.
“Today, Isla,” he stressed.
I wanted this moment to last. Especially with what he expressed next. “You’re my girl.”
With that, he grabbed my wrist, and we were out of there. I used the bathroom to clean myself up and to take a good, long, hard look in the mirror.
“Where do we go from here?” I asked my reflection. “How can I keep them both?” Once I splashed some water on my face, I made my way back to the car.
Julius sat in the driver’s seat, completely lost in thought. The heaviness of our conversation still lingered in the air, and I wanted nothing more than to simmer the fire between us. Soon, everything would change again.
We drove in silence for a while until I broke it first. “Are you going to tell me where we’re going?”
“No.”
“Oh, come on… you know I’m not a fan of surprises.”
“All the more reason to torture you.” Catching onto my lightheartedness, he tried to grip my thigh to tickle me, but I intercepted his hand at the last second.
“Did you see that, Julius Knightly?” I wiggled my eyebrows.
He wickedly grinned, gripping my thigh harder that time. This was our thing.
“No!” I pitifully thrashed around.
“What was that, Mouse?” he mocked, squeezing tighter. “Did I see what?”
I squealed, laughing and feeling like I was going to pee my pants. “Please!” I begged.
“You want my mercy?”
“Please!”
He softened his hold. “Alright, but only because you begged.”
I thought he’d remove his hand from my thigh, but he kept it there, caressing my skin with the tips of his fingers.
It was crazy how quickly we could go from that to this.
It was one of the things I loved about Julius, how easy it was to remember we were best friends first. Honestly, I thought that was how our relationship was going to survive.
We had a foundation, and at the end of the day, we needed each other.
Out of nowhere, he questioned, “How’s school?”
“It’s fine.”
“Grades are good?”
“School is the only thing keeping me busy.”
“I’m glad you have that.”
Unable to resist, I countered, “You could have school too. You ever thought about going to college?”
He smiled. “You’re going to have to liquor me up to answer that question.”
“But we’re having such a great conversation. Let’s keep that going.”
“At whose expense?”
“Currently yours.”
He gripped my thigh.
“Don’t you dare!
“You’re so bossy.”
“Come on… I know what you’re doing. You’re sidestepping my question.”
“Is that what I’m doing? What can I say, Isla? You bring out the best and worst in me.”
“Why can’t you tell me if you’ve considered college?”
“It wouldn’t change anything.”
“That’s where you’re wrong. It can change everything.”
“I never considered much future other than making sure I kept a roof over our heads.”
“At your expense, Julius. You could have—”
“I did what I had to do, end of story.”
I let it go. About an hour later, we were pulling onto a private beach.
“Where are we?”
“Don’t worry.” He opened his car door. “I know the owner.”
I followed his lead, rounding the hood of the car to stand in front of him. “You know the owner of a private beach? Should I be concerned?”
“Mouse, trust me, the last thing I want to do is go back to jail.”
“Are we going to talk about what happens next with that?”
“There’s no next.”
I jerked back, confused. “What do you mean? You were in jail for a month—”
“I know where I was, and I’m telling you the truth.”
“Just like that? You don’t have to go to court? You’re not on probation?”
“No.”
I jerked back again. “How is that possible?”
“I know people in low places.”
“Marco?”
“Isla, it doesn’t matter. I’m not going anywhere. I’m not leaving you again. It’s the only reason I haven’t confronted Kraven yet. His stunt didn’t cost me my life.”
“And what do you owe Marco for your freedom?”
“He’s grateful I didn’t rat him out. We’re even now.”
“Oh my God!” I excitedly jumped into his arms. “Why have you waited this long to tell me this news? This is amazing!”
He hugged me back.
“I can’t believe you didn’t tell me this until now!”
For the first time in what felt like forever, I was relieved. I relished in that emotion as the fresh air and ocean scent hit my senses in the best possible way. The view was breathtaking, and the colors of the sky matched the hue of the water.
I grabbed my phone from my back pocket and held it up high. He caught on, tugging me close against his chest as I snapped a picture of us.
“I don’t have a bathing suit,” I announced.
“Me neither.”
I smiled at the thought as he wrapped his arms around my waist from behind me, causing me to lean into his embrace. I blinked, and he was throwing me over his shoulder with my ass in his face.
“I think it’s time to go swimming!”
“Julius! Don’t you dare!” I shouted, holding myself up on his back to look at the ocean. “If I go in, you’re coming with me!”
“You do realize I could—”
“You could what, Isla?” He knew he had the upper hand. With ease, he shifted my body, and my legs naturally wrapped around his waist. “Tell me what you could do?”
I opened my mouth, but his cell phone rang, ruining the moment. He slowly set me back down onto the sand before answering his call. I took the opportunity to compose myself, taking off my clothes but leaving on my bra and panties.
When he turned around, he stumbled back a little.
I posed for him. “What do you think?”
He said one word, and one word only. In a deep, throaty tone, he ordered, “Run.”
I didn’t have to be told twice. I turned, hauling ass into the ocean, right into a huge wave. By the sudden warning on his handsome face, I was in trouble. As I popped out of the water, I realized my bra was gone.
“Shit! I lost my bra!”
Julius yelled from behind me. “See, that’s what happens when you’re a bad girl.”
“Hey! Less back talk! Help me!”
“You losing your bra is now my problem? What do I get if I help you?”
“You’re bargaining while I’m practically naked?”
With that, he yanked off his shirt, tossing it over to me. “Solved one of your problems. The next one is going to cost you.”
“Oh yeah?” I mocked with a shit-eating grin, throwing his shirt back to him. “Well then.” I was about to stand, and he knew I’d do it.
He growled. The next thing I knew, he was jumping in beside me, and I didn’t hesitate. I swam the fastest my legs could kick, and my arms would pull. I barely made it a few feet before he dragged me under the water with his grip around my ankle.
I shrieked, sucking in water from laughing at the same time.
I had no choice but to surrender, shouting, “Mercy! You win!”
“Say you’re sorry,” he ordered, holding me up so I could breathe.
“What?” I spit out salt water, giggling.
“Say you’re sorry.”
“Okay!” I couldn’t stop laughing. “I’m sorry! I’m sorry!”
“Good girl.”
With my body now wrapped around his, he backed me into the bridge and caged me in with his arms, holding us both up. My naked chest was now pressed up against his.
Except it wasn’t only my heart pounding that time, it was his too. Our hearts felt in sync with each other. From the way he was looking at me to the way he was taking every last emotion out of me as if it belonged to him to how I wanted it to kiss me.
How would I survive him?
In the end, it didn’t matter. We were two crazy kids who were experiencing love for the first time together. Our eyes were locked. Fused as one. I struggled to find my composure. Feeling his heated skin on my erect nipples only stirred my panted breaths and throbbing core.
“My bra—”
“Is in my hand.”
“Can I have it back, please?”
He didn’t falter in stating…
“I prefer you naked and at my mercy.”