“You don’t understand!” I finally yelled back, more tears spilling free as I lost the strength to keep it together.
“Then explain it to me, Ry!” He demanded. “Explain to me how you can walk away from me again!” He choked out.
“I left the first time because you said you couldn’t love me like that! I didn’t know how to be just your friend, not without being stuck in the vicious cycle of hoping that one day you might change your mind and love me back.” I sobbed.
He closed the space between us, resting his hand against my cheek.
I nuzzled it, the warmth of his palm offering me comfort.
“I was such an idiot back then, Ry. I was a kid who thought he was doing right by you. I thought you deserved better. Fuck, I still do.”
“Ty…” I started, shaking my head.
He cut me off. “I should’ve told you how I felt back then.” He continued. “I should’ve came after you, but I didn’t. I understand that I share the blame for all those years we missed out on. I’m here now though, doesn’t that count for something?”
I looked up at him. “It does,” I admitted. “But we live four hours away from each other, Ty. You have your dream job, you bought a house, and that place is your home. I know you’ve always talked about started a family there. It’s just, too late now.”
“I told you, I’ll sell my house. I can find a teaching job anywhere, including here. That stuff doesn’t matter to me. You’re my home, Ry! Not a place, not a job, not a house. You are. If I ever do get to start a family there, I want it to be with you anyway. If I have to wait for that, it will be worth it.”
I looked up at him now. “You really would move here for me? You’d wait on me to be ready to move back there, even if that time never came?”
He smiled, reaching his other hand up to wipe away my tears. “Don’t you get it? I would do anything for you. I don’t care where we are, as long as I’m with you. You’re my forever, you always have been.”
Chapter 23
Tyler
As I sat there with her cheek resting in my hand, tear stained red eyes staring up at me, and I'd never felt so in love with her, then I did in that moment.
It was a powerful feeling, to finally free myself of all those past mistakes and heartache. Once I was able to forgive myself for being a foolish kid, I was finally able to love Ryder the way she deserved.
“You really would move here for me? You’d wait on me to be ready to move back there, even if that time never came?”
I smiled, moving my other hand up to wipe away some more tears from her face.
“Don’t you get it? I would do anything for you. I don’t care where we are, as long as I’m with you. You’re my forever, you always have been.”
She smiled and pulled me towards her. I leaned down, brushing my lips across hers in a slow gentle motion. Then, as I heard her breath hitch in her chest, I smiled and nudged my lips softly against hers until she parted them.
The moment my tongue found hers, she moaned, and I crushed my lips down against hers with an urgency that never seemed to dull between us. I groaned in relief the moment I was lost to the kiss I’d been denying myself from the moment I saw her walk into the room.
I pressed my body firmly up against hers, forcing her backwards towards the door frame of her bedroom.
“Is that a yes?” I asked, breaking our kiss in a raspy breath.
Her lips were red now, slightly swollen even, from the harshness of my kiss.
“Yes.” She breathed.
“Yes, what?”
I moved my lips to her shoulder, tracing them along the top of it, until they reached the base of her neck.
“Yes, stay.” She breathed heavily.
God, I’d never tire of those sounds.
I walked her backwards into her room, kicking the door shut behind us.
“Say it.” I encouraged her, in a whisper, against her earlobe. “Say you love me.”
“I love you.” She whispered back against my own.
I growled out and captured her lips again. Wrapping my arm around her waist and hoisting her up against my body. Her legs wrapped around me, and I used one arm to tug her shirt off over her head. My lips brushing over every inch of bare skin they could find, as if they’d been suffering in her body’s absence.
I backed her into a vanity and perched her up against it for a minute. Pulling off my own shirt and unzipping my pants, as I pulled a condom from my pocket.
She shoved down the waistline of my jeans and then quickly ditched her own as I rolled on the condom.
When I was ready, my eyes caught hers and I pulled her up off the vanity and back into my arms.
“I love you.” I said again, then thrust into her.
She cried out as I filled her, digging her fingertips into the back of my shoulders, to hold on to me.
I wrapped my arm around her waist and used the vanity to brace her against as I drove into her. Its sole purpose was only to hold her steady, as we tore at each other with such intensity that I found myself pausing amidst the gasps for breath to check
