“I didn’t want to listen, Najah. But eventually, I realized that they were right. That night, I promised your father that I would end things, that I would give you the chance to build your identity and your career without the influence of our relationship hanging over you. And so, I told you those terrible things…”
“Because you knew those words were the only ones that would hurt me enough to make me hate you, to make me walk away.”
She raised her hands to his face, cupping his cheeks, needing to see him, to feel him. How had she not seen it then. She wanted to be angry with him, to hold on to the hardness that she’d carried for so long. But there was only one problem. She remembered how their love bordered on obsession.
She knew no one could’ve convinced her that they needed time apart to grow as individuals. Which meant she also knew that she understood how in his teenage mind, using the words of her tormentors would’ve been the only way to get her to walk away and live.
“Baby, I’m so sorry. But the truth is, when I saw you on that boat, I knew that everything our parents had said to me was true, and that my breaking up with you was the right thing to do.”
He placed his forehead against hers and she could feel the tangible connection between them re-weaving and stitching itself back together. Only this time, with adult hearts and minds that understood how life worked, that bond was fortified, stronger than it ever was before.
“I have never stopped loving you, Najah. If you just give me a chance to show you, I promise you won’t regret it. Just let me make us real again, please.”
“Tomasso,” she pulled back just enough to meet his gaze. “We were real again the moment I let you touch me. That’s why I ran. I thought I could spend a couple of nights in your bed and walk away after the agreement was finished. But being with you, being with your family again…we were us. I knew if I stayed, if I kept up this farce of an engagement for six months, I’d be in too deep to walk away with my heart intact. I just couldn’t bear the thought of losing you, of you hurting me again.”
He placed a light kiss on her mouth. It was his way of trying to soothe the raw aches in both their hearts.
“If you give me a second chance, I will never hurt you like that again. Never.”
“I know you won’t,” The burden of pain that had dogged her for so long crumbled, leaving her heart light and bringing a smile to her face. “Just like I know the truth is just as simple as this, Tomasso: You are mine and I am yours. Always have been, always will be.”
“Does that mean you will wear my ring again?”
“Only if we spend the next six months getting to know each other again and rebuilding our fortress around our love.”
“That,” he pressed a hard, passionate kiss against her lips, “is a promise I can definitely keep.”
She buried her fingers in his hair, bringing his lips back to hers again, drinking from him so desperately as she tried to quench her thirst for him.
“Now bring your ring and yourself upstairs so we can continue to renegotiate the terms of this updated contract.”
“God, in all my years of business,” he sighed. “the words ‘renegotiate, terms, and contract’ have never made my dick so hard in my life.”
She stood up, and he followed suit.
“I guess that means you’d better follow me to my room quick, fast, and in a hurry.”
He shook his head. “No ma’am. Not when I have a better idea.”
He palmed her ass, and before she knew what he was doing, he lifted her off the stairs, forcing her to lock her legs around him as he climbed each step. And when they entered her bedroom in record time, and he was peeling her clothes off her before she could say yes, please, and thank you, she wholeheartedly agreed his idea was in fact better.
This was who they always were together, how they should always be. Now that they’d found their way back into each other’s lives, Najah wouldn’t let anything or anyone tear them apart again.
Epilogue
One year later…
“Tomasso,” she let her hands drop down to his forearms as she stepped out of his embrace. “I need to get back to work.”
With a smug smirk, he stepped into personal space again.
“You can’t run from me, Sweetness. We’re on a boat surrounded by water.”
He did have a point. They’d be at sea for the next two days until they returned to port.
“Have dinner with me tonight, Sweetness.”
“And if I don’t?”
