Page 50 of Beastly Mr. Buchanan
Tears stream down her face, but she makes no move to wipe them away.
“I thought I had done something wrong.Like I wasn’t enough for you,” she sobs.
Her pain shatters my inertia.I reach for her, but she dodges.
“No, Karey.You were always perfect.I was the one who wasn’t okay,” I snarl.
“Then tell me what happened so I can understand,” she pleads.
“I killed my father.”
She trembles from head to toe with her hands clenched into fists at her sides.
“You killed your… how?”
“I pushed him down the stairs,” I say in a cold, emotionless voice.
Abject misery consumes me.She’s going to walk away now, just like I did to her so many years ago, and the fucked up part is I can’t blame her.She should.I’m not safe.I’m not a good man.I don’t deserve her.I can’t protect her from myself.
She stuns me into the present by framing my face with her delicate hands.
“He was abusive, wasn’t he?I saw your bruises but was too afraid to ask,” she says through a throat thick with tears.
I nod.She takes in a shaky breath before asking, “He found out you were expelled for fighting and took it out on you?”
I shake my head and clear my throat but the words still burn.
“He found out I didn’t win the fight.His son couldn’t have lost.He wouldn’t stop.My mom tried to save me.I wasn’t fast enough.”
She brushes her thumbs over my cheeks, smearing the tears I refuse to acknowledge, and finishes the rest of the puzzle with a few heartbroken words.
“And then you came back to school and thought I’d replaced you.”
I nod.
She takes a deep breath.
Pain thrums through my ears as she pinches them.
“Look at me, Declan Buchanan.”
I’m powerless to deny her.
“I could never replace you.”She kisses my cheek.“You’re my knight in shining armor.”My nose.“My feral beast.”My other cheek.“My one true love.”My forehead.“My soulmate.”My chin.
“Mine.All mine.Forever.”
She seals her promise by initiating the hottest, dirtiest, rawest kiss of my life.
It says everything words can’t express, but when she finally lifts her lips from mine, I respond with the truth.
“I love you, Karey.”
Her response is instant.No hesitation.No doubt.
“I love you too, Declan.”
She’s mine.My soon-to-be wife.My one and only.My cupcake.My forever.
