Always Only You by Chloe Liese (z-lib.org).epub

ready—if you’re ready—tell me, and we’ll talk.” He glances up to the night sky,
like he’s searching the stars for something mere earth can’t give him. But then
his gaze drops once more to me, a tender smile warming his face.
“First. I never wanted to keep this from you, but I-I didn’t know what else to
do but stay quiet when it was impossible. And then, when I knew you were
leaving, I wanted to wait until you left the team, but I don’t know what happened
except on the beach, last night, something feels like it’s changed, and now I
can’t. I can’t contain this anymore. It needs to be said.
“I want you to know, if you never want to hear about this again, I will
respect that. I won’t make it uncomfortable. I’ll be professional at work and
leave you alone. Okay?”
Is this how you let someone down easy? Seems like an odd way to do it. I
search his eyes. “Ren, I’m so confused.”
He makes a sound of unease and rubs his forehead. “Yeah, I’m realizing that.
Which…I don’t know if that makes this easier or harder, but here goes.”
Standing tall, throwing his shoulders back, he huffs a breath and stares
intensely down at the ground. Until, finally, he peers up at me through thick
lashes and holds my eyes. “The woman I’ve been waiting for…”
My stomach drops. That’s how he’s going to do it. Tell me about her, and
like a bucket of ice water, douse every spark of lust between us.
I feel sick with sadness already, knowing that once I know who she is, this
tiny moment I had with him—stolen kisses, heated glances, the soft whispers of
tangled fingers, palm to palm—has to end. Because I am many things—
obsessive, fastidious, blunt, and short-tempered—but one thing I am not, and
never will be, is the other woman.
“That woman, Frankie,” he says. “It’s you.”
It’s you.
Two words. Missiles, tearing through my heart, landing on an earth-rattling
boom.
Ren’s right. I’m speechless. And long before I once again locate my body in
time and space, Ren’s gone from my yard, leaving me blinking rapidly into the
middle distance while my brain tries to process the words it just heard.
It’s. You.
Wandering shakily into the house, I slowly sink to the ground, as my breath
comes short and quick.
Countless moments with Ren flash through my mind, painted in a new,
weighted, gloriously terrifying light.
I’m the one he’s been waiting for.
I’m the one he’s wanted.