“You gave me no fucking choice.”
Our past coming to a head was inevitable. Last night had been so sexually charged after Ty had declared his intentions toward me, we’d both obviously glossed over his deep resentment in order to get naked. Once we had released the tension, so to speak, I guess it left room for Ty’s true feelings to spill out. I knew we were at a critical juncture, and I decided then and there that Ty deserved to express himself. If we were going to have a chance, I wanted to be his safe place.
“I’ve tried to apologize, Ty. I’ll never forgive myself for not talking to you before I left that morning or for ignoring you afterward,” I said softly. “You didn’t deserve that, and I was too immature to understand the consequences of my actions. You don’t need to answer to me for anything you did while we were broken up. Truly, you don’t.”
“I know I shouldn’t have to.” Ty’s anger was tinged with sadness. “Fuck! This is too much.”
“So, we finally find our way back to each other, and you want to give up after one day because it’s hard to work through eight years of emotions?”
“No, I don’t want to give up” Ty’s face was almost ashen. “I feel like I’m on a rollercoaster. I don’t want to talk about this stuff, I just want us to be happy.”
“We have to talk, babe.” I tentatively reached for his hand. “If we don’t, you’ll never believe in us again.”
“I fucking love you so much, Zoey.” Ty reached over and took my index finger in his. “You’re still my very favorite person, I don’t want you to leave again.”
“I fucking love you too, Ty.” I squeezed our fingers together. “Oh God, is that what triggered this? Me talking about taking a new job?”
Ty shrugged. “I don’t know, I guess I thought I’d sweep you off your feet and we’d be together.”
“I want that.” I sighed, hoping to explain. “I also want you to understand why I finished undergrad and law school in five flippin’ years, immediately took a job as an associate in a super-competitive law firm, and I have been grinding for three years. I’ve worked hard to be in demand so I can find my dream job.”
“I thought you wanted to make partner.”
“After helping you with the foundation, I’ve set my sights higher.”
Ty seemed frustrated, but I knew that if our relationship stood a chance my career needed to have equal consideration. “Okay, do you care to fill me in?”
“I want to be an executive at a non-profit and get out of law-firm life altogether.” I said proudly. “Those are the jobs my headhunter is looking for.”
Ty’s entire demeanor softened. “Wow. That’s really cool.”
“I’m passionate about this work, Ty.” I relaxed slightly. “But it’s you I want. If you decide you can’t be with me, fine. If you want to take back everything you said last night, fine. If you never want to make love to me again, fine. But just because I want to have my own career that means something, doesn’t mean I’m leaving you. Get that through your thick skull.” I grasped his hand tightly over the island.
Ty sighed and leaned forward, dropping his head on our clasped hands on the counter. “Fuck.”
“I’m not the same person, Ty. I’ve grown up too. I know what I want, and I want you. You’re it for me and I won’t let you or anyone ever talk me out of it again.”
“I didn’t think you’d be here when I got back.” He looked back up, his gorgeous face finally calm.
“But here I am.”
Ty stood to his full height, his square jaw dusted with five o’clock shadow, his blue eyes considering me carefully as he expressed my greatest fear. “My plan was to ease into this. Maybe go out for dinner, try to start completely over. But when I saw you after the show, I got caught up in all of it. I wanted you so bad the next thing I knew we were here and fucking and fucking some more, and it felt like we were connected on such a deep level.”
“We are, we always have been.” I couldn’t stop myself from walking around the island and hugging him.
“I’m acting so crazy. I want you back so much Z.” Ty drew me close and whispered in my hair, “Today sucked. Well, the wake-up blowie was good. The shower was epic.”
I stepped back but kept my hand on his hip to keep contact. “I want you back too.”
Ty cuddled me under his arm so he could stroke my back.
“Tell me the truth, Z. Did I fuck things up?” Ty’s expressive eyes were full of worry.
“No, we are together again. It’s what I want too. As I said before, I’m a little insecure about how I’ll measure up, but I promise that I won’t throw the past in your face.”
“For the record, you have nothing to be insecure about. You’re the only girl I have ever wanted. I drank and partied and lost myself in the cliché rock-star life to try to forget you. It never worked. That probably doesn’t make you feel any better, but it’s why I don’t drink anymore and why I haven’t been with anyone in almost two years. Well, until you.”
“Two years?” I was shocked. “What about Ronni Miller?”
Ty kissed my head softly and hugged me closer. I could tell that he was exhausted. So was I. “Our publicists set that up. It was a fake romance. After building me up to be a bad guy, their next bright idea was to clean up my image. That’s when I went to therapy and got paired up with Ronni.”
“Wait, so
