Frayed (29 page)

Yes, I was beyond comforted.

Sunrises, I wanted more of them. Today was a brand new day. My rebirth, my second chance, and I was done wasting any more time dwelling on the past.

***

“You promise to meet up with us? This is not some stupid excuse to make us go away?” Amber arched her brow at me, suspicious.

I groaned at her stubbornness. “
I promise, okay?
Carter’s house is a block away, seriously.” Carter and the guys were throwing an end of the summer party that would continue until Sunday night. “I’m going to shower. Give me an hour to get ready. Bye.” I strode out of the kitchen and went into my bedroom.

I heard our doorbell chime just before I jumped in the shower. “I’m leaving now!” Amber yelled at the top of her lungs.

Living with Lindsey and Amber was actually not so bad. We would occasionally bicker, but that was a given. I was excited to start school on Monday, but, most of all, excited to see Emma again tomorrow. Ever since we had left London, our contact with her had been scarce. She said she was busy with the movie wrapping up, but I knew it was pure bullshit. Emma was dodging something important. My only guess was Carter was causing rift between them. To what extent, I had no clue.

My heart ached for Taylor. Each day, I felt the agony of it. The only thing that kept me afloat was remembering how much he had persisted that I had to start learning how to
fight through the darkness. “Fighting is progressive. Fighting is reason.” He had once said to me. So, here I was, learning to fight, for my life and for my future.

Once I was out of the shower, lathered with body butter and with towel dried hair, I grabbed my periwinkle-colored silk robe, loosely wrapping it around me. I strode out of the bathroom and headed straight to my walk-in closet. I halted when my phone chirped with a text message.

Lindsey: Going to Carter’s now. See you in a bit.

Smiling, I responded.

Me: You betcha!

Right after I sent the message, something caught my eye.

I jumped out of my skin and no words came out.

“I got your message,” Taylor said, matter-of-factly. He stood there, against my bedroom door with his hands slotted into his black jeans.

Starved, that’s what I was. My body reacted to him immediately.
My God, how I have missed you.
Wetting my lips, I nervously tried to speak. “I sent that… a week ago.”

Why wasn’t he moving away from the door? Did he just want to confront me about the message and then leave?

“It took me the same amount of time to think about it.”

“Oh, right. Um, let’s go outside, we can talk there.” I closed the gap between us, but when I tried to open the door, he was immovable.  His eyes zeroed in on me. “Taylor?” My breath caught in my throat when our eyes clashed. He was
so
close and I was having a hard time telling myself that he’s with someone.

“So, you’ve missed me?” He questioned, his eyes probing for more than just my answer.

Shit
, I hope I didn’t cause him any trouble with Meg. Okay, maybe I wished a tiny bit of trouble for her. “I’m sorry about the message. I didn’t mean for it to—”

I found myself up against the wall before I even got to finish my sentence. “If you didn’t mean it, then why write it to begin with?” His hand cupped my chin, his body close to mine as he hissed at me infuriatedly.

Taylor was here…he really was here.

My body was convulsing at the mere touch of his skin I hyperventilated when the very smell of him hit me, hard. My sense of smell was at its peak and I was endlessly hypnotized. I was out of breath, heady, and a few heartbeats away from fainting. “I meant every word.”

Taylor hesitantly placed the side of his head next to mine, inhaling my scent before he whispered against my ear. “What happened to Harry?” There was a catch in his voice that spoke volumes.

How did he expect me to respond when his hot breath was on my ear?
It was impossible to form words and think coherently. I let out a soft moan when his lip grazed my earlobe. Brain,
please
, think. “I realized too late that you were the one I wanted to be with.”

When the tip of his tongue darted out and licked my lobe, I shivered from the burning heat. “Oh, fuck!” I yelped at the sudden erotic contact.

“I’ve missed you every single day you weren’t with me. Missed you every hour you weren’t in my arms; every minute I couldn’t hear your voice and every second that I could not touch you.” He breathed into me, his voice throaty, potent with emotion.

When his lips sucked on my neck, I whimpered. “Please…”

Taylor pulled away and gazed down on me. His eyes poured over all of me as mine begged him. “If you choose to be with me, I demand to have your honesty, your utmost and unwavering loyalty, solid trust and hopefully,
your love
. I hope to hear those words from you in the foreseeable future. If you can’t give me all of these things, then we can’t be together, Trista.”

Was he really going to give us a shot?
After what I did?
Tears filled my vision as I looked at him. “I don’t deserve this chance with you, Taylor.”

His thumbs wiped my tears of joy away. “Maybe you do, maybe you don’t. I was determined to move on and try to forget you. I couldn’t believe that after all those days and nights, when we were inseparable, that you could so easily choose him without thought. I had just gotten back together with Meg two days before you showed up. When you left my house, I was confused, but I tried to push it away from my thoughts. All of my efforts were for naught the second I opened the message, I knew I had to end things with Megan then. For seven days, I was going back and forth rereading that text whenever I could.” His lips brushed the side of my lip. “You’ve caught me.”

I inched my face to meet his lips. Just like that, we ignited each other into flames of passion. The kiss was demanding, painful, passionate and mind-numbingly beautiful. There were not enough words to describe the celestial bliss this lovely, amazing and uniquely divine creature brought out in me.

Taylor’s hands hastily untied my robe and hungrily sought out my breast. “Trista,” he groaned against my lips while my hands fumbled with his jeans. “Promise me that you’re only mine this time.”

I nodded, understanding the difficulty of his question since I was body and soul Harry’s when we first started off. I knew I would have no problem, from here on out, thinking only of him. Taylor had me. I was his and he was mine. “I promise you, this time I’m only ever yours.”

I barely pushed away his underwear before my hands desperately sought his manhood. My hand rejoiced at the hot silken feel of him. Taylor pushed me hard against the wall, making his thick cock hit against my stomach.  His finger probed into me “Spread your legs a little wider. I want to taste you.”

Hell to the no! “Later. Take me hard on the wall.” I speedily said before I found my body pushed and lifted up as his cock slid perfectly inside me, his hard hot length demanding more. My body welcomed him. Each stroke brought out a cathartic euphoria. My nails dug into his back, deeply grazing it as I possessively ran my hands down to his ass.

We were both savages, like cats in heat and no amount of heavenly stroking from his cock would be enough for either of us. “Hang onto me. I want to carry you to bed.” Taylor’s hands held my ass cheeks as my arms wrapped around his neck.

He slowly lowered me down while his eyes worshipped me. The animalistic hunger we had just shared a second ago was now subdued to something else entirely. It was something absolute, complex, and, without a doubt, enigmatic as well as profoundly inescapable. Taylor’s kiss sealed our fate. Just like destiny, it was simply and hopelessly unavoidable.

Epilogue

Taylor

“I thought you said this place closed at ten at night? Looks pretty deserted to me for six pm.” Trista observed as her eyes scanned the empty parking lot.

“Need you comment on everything woman?” I threw her an amused smile before gathering her close as we headed to our destination.

I guided her towards the stairs that led to the second floor of the observatory. She looked more than beautiful tonight and I couldn’t be happier to have her in my life. She truly was a breath of fresh air. She was still feisty and was still unbearably crazy most times, but I adored her all the same. The hellcat challenged me in all ways imaginable. Even our sex life was dominated by her demands, though that part I was more than ready to oblige. If she thought I was insatiable then she was maniacally ravenous at any time of the day. We fought at times, but we agreed to not let the problems fester. We had to talk even if we were more than ready to just scratch each other’s eyes out. Compromise. We learned it the hard way, but it was worth it. We were still learning as we went on. The best part about it was that we were both willing to do it together—for us to grow as a couple, as a whole.

“Oh, holy shit!” Trista exclaimed as she took in the setting before her. Candles were set up on the floor along with rose petals scattered throughout the room, which looked out over the city of Los Angeles. The cellist and the few violinists started to play atop the second-floor landing,
Lost
by Michael Bublé.

“What’s going on?” She shakily whispered, tears forming in her eyes.

Seeing my vixen touched at my gesture, I was more than assured about our future together. “Happy three month anniversary, Trista.”

“You do this after
three
months?”

“For you, yes.” I gathered her in my arms as my eyes scanned her pretty face. “These past few months with you have been amazing. You’ve driven me mad with worry, blasted me with rejection after rejection in the very beginning, but here I am, in love with you more than I have ever loved anyone. You can always count on me to be there with you; to sit with you when you need someone close, to help you stand when you can barely make it. I’m here for you, to guide you, help you, protect you, but—most of all—to share laughter and tears with you. I love you. I knew I did the moment you left me in Greece, and I’m letting you know now, how much you truly mean to me. I’ll never leave your side.  For as long as you’ll have me, I will always be here.”

“God, why do you always do things that make me cry beautiful tears?” She desperately kissed me before burning into my eyes. “I love you,” she whispered shaking her head. “I owe you so much, but you never ask for anything back. How could I not fall in love with you? Everyday, I’m thankful for you. You were that light at the end of my dark tunnel, Taylor. I love you so fucking much.”

“You have no idea how happy you’ve made me tonight. Hearing those words from you, after all this time, made everything worth it.”

“Sir? Your dinner is ready.” A man in uniformed attire interrupted us.

“Dinner, my beautiful siren, awaits. I have a long agenda ahead of us tonight. You need all the sustenance you can consume.”

She went up on tiptoes and kissed me again. “I don’t see any problems with that Boss.”

We still had a long way ahead of us, but love did have a way of healing the wounded. The broken ones are the bravest. The ones who love with pure unadulterated abandonment; I had found, through Trista, that these ones gave the best kind of love.

The Torn Series:

Scornfully Yours
(Emma)
OUT NOW!

Blasphemous
(Emma): May 31

Scorned
(Lindsey)
: TBA

Fixated
on You (Emma)
: TBA