Save Me From the Dark (14 page)

She sniffles as she looks up at me. “I don’t think I’d ever regret anything with you, Ace, but I may wish to have waited. That’s not the same as regretting.”

Smiling at her, “I know it’s not, but at the same time, I don’t want you to wish you had waited. It’s a moment we’ll only get once. Our first time together. We’ll never have that again. I want it to be perfect and I don’t care how long I have to wait for that.”

We are quiet for a moment. She curls back into me and I can’t resist running my hand through her hair. No matter what happens when I take her back to school, I’ll cherish these moments and all the moments to come.

Bella

Ace continues to talk to me about nothing in particular. He laughs suddenly. Looking up at him, I am a little confused on what would be funny right now.

“I’m rambling. I’m trying Bella.”

Pushing myself up on my elbow, I look down at him. “Trying to what?”

His eyes almost visibly darken in front mine. My heart speeds up. It becomes very hard to breathe.

“Ace,” I breathe.

Cupping my neck, his fingers massage the back of my head. “I’m trying hard to keep my hands to myself,” his voice husky, deep that causes a tingling sensation to start in my stomach. “You are just so damn beautiful. Feeling you lying against me…”

In a movement – that I’m not even aware I’m doing – I seal my lips over his. His responding growl fills my ears moments before I feel the bed on my back. His body presses me further into the mattress as he shifts between my legs.

A hum runs through my body, vibrating every inch of my skin. Ace pushes his hips against mine and I can’t stop the moan from falling from my lips. With each thrust he makes, I can feel him hard against me. It is driving me insane.

Just then, a phone starts ringing, Ace breaks away from me. Looking at me for a moment, he shakes his head, climbs off me, to walk over and answer the phone. My heart drops in my chest.

I saw it, I know I did. He regrets going that far with me. How could I be that stupid?

Climbing from the bed, I grab my clothes and slip them on. While he is still in a heated conversation with whoever’s on the phone, I leave the room. It isn’t until I get downstairs that I realize leaving him is not an option. Not one that I could do willingly. Even if I can’t admit it out loud, he’s my heart.

Turning around, I head over to the piano. Strumming my fingers over the keys, I start to play a melody that has been stuck in my head since the moment I first kissed Ace.

When I saw you, I couldn’t move

When I saw you, I had everything to prove

I’m not worth loving or caring for

But I only seem to want you more

The moment our eyes met

Was the moment my heart lost the bet.

From the moment, you kissed me

I was lost, my heart no longer free.

From the second you touched my heart

My soul waits to fall apart.

Jumping when I feel Ace’s hands on my shoulders, he sits down next to me. I stop playing and drop my hands into my lap, not being able to bring myself to look at him.

“Can you continue to play that? I want to do something.”

Reluctantly, I start to play again. Playing this piano in front of someone like Ace has my hands shaking. It is taking everything out of me not to mess up, but when his soothing voice starts to fill my ears, the nerves fade away. All that’s left is this loved up loon swooning at his feet.

My heart was empty, broken and hid away

I never wanted to find love or trust again

Then I find you and I was changed that day

My heart was whole and my soul began to mend

When I saw you, the butterflies flew

My heart skipped a beat the day I saw you.

When I saw you, my world was bright

For the first time, I saw the day and not just the night.

Tears fall in streams down my cheeks. “How…” I choke on my words.

“The day I saw your ad, something inside me clicked. I don’t know what it was, but I do know that since I started talking to you… Since I met you in person, I’ve never been so happy. One day I’ll prove that to you. I’ll make you see who I see. More importantly, I’ll make you believe everything I’m saying now.”

Turning around, I look him in his beautiful blues. Even when I was yelling at him, he was always so kind to me. A slow smile spreads across his face.
Why can’t I just get over it all and be able to give this man what he desperately wanted earlier? Hell, what I’m realizing that I desperately want too.

My eyes widen at the realization of what I just thought. Ace leans forward and kisses me softly.

“Let’s go to bed. We’ve got to get up early,” the sad smile returns.

Nodding my head, I stand from the piano. After taking my hand, Ace leads us upstairs and into the room. Grabbing one of his shirts, I walk into the bathroom and change into it.  When I walk back out, he’s already lying in bed watching me as I walk over to him. My cheeks heat slightly as I hurry under the covers.

Just as he starts to talk, his phone rings again. Looking at him, I see frustration in his eyes.

“It’s okay. You can answer your phone,” I smile sadly at him.

Truth is, I want him to stay next to me for every last hour we have left together. My heart is already breaking. In effort to keep him from seeing the heartbreak on my face, I roll over. Closing my eyes, I wait for him to leave to answer his phone that is still ringing incessantly.

That moment never comes. Instead, he shifts slightly, the ringing stops, and then wraps me in his arms. Turning around, I look at him confused.

“Nothing is more important than holding you,” he whispers.

Rolling over, I curl into him. Ace’s hold tightens around me and I feel his deep shuttered breath. Neither of us say anything for a moment. My thoughts swirled around in my head. No matter how hard it may be for me to vocalize, I’m head over heels in love with this man. Soon goodbye will come. After I walk into that school on Monday, that’s it. My body shakes with my quiet sobs that I desperately try to hold back.

“It’s not goodbye, Bella. This is just the start of our forever. I’m calling you and seeing you whenever I can. This isn’t goodbye. I won’t let it be,” he whispers into my hair as his hold tightens on me.

My voice no longer allowing me to talk, a loud sob fills the room. He’s right next to me and because I know what the future holds, I’m missing him already. Ace says nothing else just holds me while I cry. Eventually, exhaustion takes over me.

Ace

Slowly, the shudders leave her body. Bella’s breathing turns deep and steady. She’s fallen asleep. Kissing the top of her head softly, I pray that we both survive this. I’m not sure who I was trying to convince more earlier, me or her.

There’s that nagging voice in the back of my head telling me that what my heart wants may not be in the cards at all. The only thing I want, desperately need, is some time with her that is not tainted by her past or mine. Was it really too much to ask for?

“I love you, Bella. I’ll save you if it’s the last thing I do, I will.”

Waking to the soft, sweet, sounds of Bella’s breathing, I turn and smile at her. Her hair is tossed across the pillow and my shoulder.

“My God, you are beautiful.”

Reaching over, I brush a strand of hair from her face. Her brow creases and a frown forms on her face. Her bottom lip begins to tremor and I see a tear fall from her eye.

“Please, don’t hurt him. I’ll do anything, just please, leave him alone.” There’s a small pause and a sob escapes. “Please leave Ace. You being hurt to try to save me… I can’t handle it. Just leave.”

She seems to be fighting me in her dream. Part of me wants to laugh because she’d have to fight me if she ever asked me to turn away while she was being hurt. There’s no way in hell that I’d ever let that happen.

She starts to cringe and wince in pain. It’s all I can handle. Quickly, I cup her face in my hands and lean down kissing her. There’s a moment of stiffness before she starts kissing me back. Bella wraps her arms around my neck and brushes her fingers into my hair lightly sending a shiver down my spine.
Damn, do I ever need this woman.

“Now, that’s a way to wake up,” she smiles at me once we broke the kiss.

“Mmmm I have to agree,” I wink. “You ready for some breakfast?”

“Yes,” she grins, the nightmare seemingly a distant memory.  “You know you’ve spoiled me.”

“Then I’ve done my job,” I say as I climb from the bed. “You deserve to be treated like a queen.”

Throwing on a pair of sweats, I toss a pair at Bella, but she’s already pulled on her robe. We head down stairs and make breakfast together. She didn’t want what she already had. So, we got a variety of breakfast foods from the fridge and pantry. Some we had to cook and others we didn’t.

It was cute watching her eat a bite of each item on the table. After she sampled everything, she looks at me with her hand on her stomach.

“I like the donuts and the cream cheese Danishes, but I’m not a fan of those things,” she scrunches her nose up as she points to the English muffins.

“They are a little dry, but it’s what you put on them that makes them good. Here let me show you my favorite way of eating English muffins.”

Cutting into my Eggs Benedict, I give her a bite off my fork. She looks at it oddly before opening her mouth and slowly taking the bite from my fork. Shifting slightly, I watch her chew her food.
How pathetic am I, getting turned on by her eating?

“Mmmm,” she moans.

She opens her mouth to say more, but I cover her mouth in a hungry kiss. Grabbing her by the waist, I lift her hurriedly over to my lap. My hands spear a path into her hair as I hold her mouth firmly to mine.

Bella moans into my mouth and grips my shoulders firmly, kissing me back with the same amount of fervor. Lowering one hand, I move her robe aside and rub the spot I desperately want to plunge my dick into. My finger works in and out of her, she whimpers as she rides my hand.

Thinking at this point is a distant memory, completely impossible. All I can think about is having her right here right now. Lifting her up with me as I stand, my finger remains inside her and my mouth never leaves hers. Moving quickly to the couch, I lay her down and lay on top of her. Pushing my finger in and out with the thrusts of my hips, I am so focused on the feel of her breasts on my bare chest that I didn’t notice that she had pushed my pants down and had my dick in her hand. It isn’t until I feel the electric touch of her grip that I realize how lost I truly am with her.

We continue kissing; her whimpers and my grunts of pleasure are the only things filling the room. Breaking away from her mouth, I lower my head to her breast and taste it for the first time. My breathing stalls as she runs her thumb over my sensitive head.