Page 138 of Love What's Left
She turns fully to face me. “Besides that. What’s going on in your head right now?”
In my head? The bitter memory of realizing, months after we married, that she really was going to keep this entire world intact forever. A place she could run to if I failed her the way her father had. Somewhere she called home that didn’t include me. I was allowed to enter only by invitation. Never the bedroom here. That door had always remained closed. A sanctuary within a sanctuary.
I push off the frame and shut the door to the corridor behind me, leaving Annabel on the other side. The snick as the lock engages seems louder than it should.
“I apologize. I deflected your question out of habit. It wasn’t deliberate.” I run a hand through my hair then take a heavy breath. “I understood why you kept this place. But I hate that you didn’t know you were safe with me, and I hate that you keep it here as some sort of escape hatch. We all need safety and financial security, but this is more than freedom to leave a bad situation. This is an exit plan.”
I force a smile. “This place brings up some pretty shitty feelings for me. We made good memories here, but I can’t see this apartment the same way you do anymore. I’m sorry.”
She looks at the floor for a moment, then moves closer and traces her fingers over my jaw, her eyes troubled. “I wanted to surprise you, but I should have told you why I wanted you to come down here with me first.”
Fighting to control the bubble of hope rising inside, I cover her hand, then slide her arm over to press a kiss to the inside of her wrist. “Why did you ask me to come here?”
“I wanted you with me while I packed, because you were part of every important memory I made here anyway. And I thought it would be good to figure out what we both wanted to bring home or what I should donate before I put the apartment on the market.”
It takes a beat for the words to sink in—long enough for my heart to reel from one hard, nearly painful knock first. I feel her meaning before my brain processes it.
So many times, I knocked on her door. It only seems fair she knocked back.
I cradle her head in my hand. “You’re sure?”
Sydney searches my eyes. “Not a single doubt in my mind.”
I kiss her temple, because if I kiss her mouth I won’t stop. “Then I’ll help you pack it all up. And we’ll take your things home.”
She slips her fingers into mine and gives a gentle tug toward the hallway. “I think we should make one last happy memory first before we let this place go.”
More heatstirs, and my pulse kicks—that hallway leads to the one room in the apartment that I’ve never been invited into. The heart of her safe space.
She pulls me toward it.
“What kind of happy memory?” I tease. “I vote for a naked one.”
Then I remember that under those loose black pants she’s wearing the socks with my face printed on them. “You can leave the socks on.”
She gurgles with laughter. “They’re shockingly comfy.”
“You just like the idea of me kissing your feet.”
She bites her fingernail and lowers her voice. “I like the idea of you kissing me anywhere at all.”
My cock twitches against my zipper. “I’m going to kiss youeverywhere.”
“Even the ticklish parts?”
“You’ll be too busy coming to laugh.”
She passes through the bedroom doorway and leads me inside. “I love your confidence.”
“You love me,” I say smugly.
She stops just inside the bedroom, turns, and rests her free hand against my chest, her eyes growing serious. “I do. This isn’t my safe space, Gabriel.”
I nod. “The penthouse—”
She cups my jaw and shakes her head. “You’re my safe space, Gabriel. You.”
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