Chapter 90- END OF BOOK 1
“He hit me. Hurt me!” she said, biting her lips. It wasn't a pleasant memory, and remembering those moments made her shiver from the pain and from fear.
“Fuck! That bastard! I’ll kill him!’
Amaya didn’t know what she’d expected when she finally told someone the grimy truth after all these years, but seeing Chase furious, bristling with rage, and ready to defend her, she suddenly knew she’d made a mistake by bottling all this up.
If he hadn’t told her the truth when she’d left, she'd have done him the same discourtesy, and if they were to have a future, she needed to tell him everything.
“When I left home, it wasn’t out of some misguided selfish dream notion. I had to leave. His escalating violence left me no option.”
He swore viciously and voraciously, clenching his hands as if he’d like to thump something, preferably her father. How could her father do such a thing? Well, of course he could relate to her fear; after all, he had the same past with his own father.
“He changed the moment my mother left. Then when we got news that she died a year after she’d run off, the abuse escalated. A shove here, a bump there.”
Amaya swiped a hand over her eyes, determined not to shed one more wasted tear over him. “Then he hit me. That’s when I knew I had to get out, as far away as I could get.”
“You should’ve told me. Damn it! I'll make him pay!” His cold-as-steel voice sent a shiver down Amaya’s spine.
“He is sick. Very sick, even dying.”
He swore again and thumped his fist on a table. “If I’d known—” Another curse ripped through the air as he rubbed his neck. “God, I'm sorry. If I’d known, I would never—”
“I left because I needed to give him back the money he put in Tommy’s name. I borrowed from Tyler. I just couldn't let my father have the last laugh. He asked me for the money he said I owed him and the one he asked you to put under Tommy’s name. For his conscience, but I couldn't let him have that. I already returned it. All of them.”
“Why didn't you tell me?” he frowned.
“Chase, I can't. I don't want to bother you with my problems.”
“Amaya—please don't keep me in the dark again; you are my wife. I am your husband.”
“I know.”
“I’m sorry, sweetheart; I was an insecure jerk who pushed you away before you woke up one day and realised you were slumming it. I'm such a fool. If I'd known, I'd have come here sooner and settled it myself.”
Her mouth dropped open, his rueful grin annoying her more than his ludicrous assumption.
“Since when did I ever give you the idea I was slumming it? That’s the most ridiculous thing I’ve ever heard.”
Amaya refrained from stamping her foot, just as he laid his hands out to her, palm up, in surrender.
“People talked, the media thought I cheated, and you cheated and that you never loved me, damn! I almost foolishly listened. Not that I needed a reason to sabotage us.”
“What does that mean?” she groaned.
Shaking his head, Chase thrust his hands into his pockets, but not before she’d seen them clench so hard the knuckles stood out.
“It means I was so cut up about my father ruining me. I didn’t want to allow another woman to get really close, let alone love her. When we first got involved, I thought you had the perfect family. Two parents, money, everything you could possibly want, while I had nothing to offer you.’
She held up her hand and stopped him. “It was never about the money. Surely you knew me better than that?”
“I guess I knew it deep down, but I didn’t want to believe it. How could someone like you love a nobody like me?”
Nobody? Seriously? I was the ‘nobody’, Chase. I have Tommy. That's all.” She said it with a small smile in the corner of her mouth.
“I can’t reason with my Greek billionaire facade, can I? Especially when I was trying to hide my insecurities behind an expensive suit and a Ferrari. But I’ve grown up, wised up.”
He took a step towards her. “I didn’t come after you immediately because I was too proud and too stupid to risk being hurt. But now it’s different, I’m different, and it hurts too damn much to be without you, so here I am.”
She’d wised up too, and if there was one thing she’d learned over the last few years, it was to fight for what she wanted.
“It’s good we’ve been honest if we’re to—”
She faltered and swallowed.
Was she really doing this?
Giving them a chance, ignoring her doubts, ignoring the sterile way their marriage started, ignoring the fear that screamed she’d almost died the first time she’d lost Chase, losing him again if this didn’t work would finish her off?
“What?”
“Have a future,” she murmured, her eyes not leaving his, her heart’s choice vindicated by the explosion of elation in his unwavering stare.
His exuberant whoop echoed in the cavernous room as he picked her up and twirled her around until she was breathless from laughing.
When he finally stopped, she slid down his body, savouring the delicious contact and the spark of heat sizzling between them.
“Do you have any idea how much I’ve missed you, Amaya?”
“Bet it’s not half as much as I’ve missed you?” she countered. She caressed his cheek, her fingertips scraping the stubble. “I love Rome, but arriving back here and having to mend a broken heart courtesy of you for the second time sure as heck hasn’t been fun.”
“Hey! You ran out on me!”
“Oh, yeah…”
Her rueful grin had him chuckling as he pulled her flush against him, their hips moulding perfectly and exacerbating the slow build of heat as he traced lazy circles in the small of her back.
“You know I love you, right?”
He stopped tracing circles, his gaze locked onto hers. “What did you just say?”
“Don’t make me say it again, Johnson. Once a day is more than enough. A girl’s got her pride, you know.”
“You’re in love with me? I mean, I’d hoped, but you’ve never actually said it and—”
“I did…once or…well, yeah, no accounting for taste.”
She shrugged, unable to keep a goofy grin from spreading across her face, and her heart stopped as he captured her hand and raised it to his lips.
“I.”
He placed a soft kiss on her palm, his tongue lightly tracing her lifeline until she shivered.
“Love.”
He nibbled along her knuckles, grazing them with his tongue.
“You.”
He nipped at the fleshy base of her thumb, sucking it gently until she moaned.
“Good answer,” she gasped as his mouth covered hers, stealing her breath along with her heart.
His mind-blowing kiss ignited the store of hope, happiness, and dreams she’d harboured for so long, sending a surge of longing through her body that took every ounce of strength she possessed not to ravish him on the spot.
Chase Johnson loved her.
Her husband loved her.
She’d finally found the ‘something’ that had eluded her for so long, and she couldn’t be happier.
“So you’re serious about staying around?”
“Hell yeah.”
He kissed her to prove it—a delicious, desperate, devastating kiss packed with emotion, feeling, and love—so much love.
When they finally came up for air, he smiled—the slow, sexy smile that set her pulse tripping as he reached to cup her face in his hands.
“I thought starting the hotel chain was the best thing I’d ever done, but I was wrong. You’re my fantasy, and there’s no one I’d rather live my dreams with than you.”
“Keep that up, and you’ll have me blubbering again.”
“I love you, Amaya. Will you live the dream with me? Forever? As my wife?”
He kissed her tenderly and softly, as if knowing she needed a moment to recover from the ecstasy of hearing the guy she’d loved forever pledge his life to her.
“You bet I will,” she whispered against the side of his mouth, knowing that, as far as dreams went, this one was the stuff made of legends.
“Let's get out of here; Tommy is waiting for us," Amaya mumbled with a small smile.
“Where is he, anyway?”
“With Tyler and Mary.”
“Good, I need to pay them a visit, maybe thank them for taking care of you and our son.”
THE END OF BOOK ONE
Coming Soon…
Mary and Tyler