Page 104 of Betraying Him
“Fuuuuuckkkk.God, I fucking—I… I love you, Jesus fuck,Savannah.”
Then we’re both crying out, moaning and groaning each other’s name as we both find our release. We pant as we catch our breaths, Harley’s head buried in my shoulder while our sweat-slicked bodies press together.
“I love you,” I whisper.
“I fucking love you, little devil.”
EPILOGUE
SAVANNAH
I takea deep breath and stare up at the house in front of me. The same house my father brought me to all those years ago. The same house where I stole information from the family that owns it. The same house I’m going to for Thanksgiving.
“Are you sure about this?” I murmur to Harley, and he snorts, because of course, he does.
Asshole.
“How many times you gonna ask that, huh? It’ll be fine, stop worrying. I told my mom I was bringing someone, and she’ll have figured out it’s you.”
Hold on a fucking minute…
“You didn’t tell her it wasmeyou were bringing?” I groan, and his eyes widen.
“Well, uhm… I kind of… no, I didn’t, okay? It’ll be fine, there’s nothing to worry about.”
I’m going to kill him.
I’m going to?—
The door opens, and I snap my attention away from Harley to find his mom standing on the steps, grinning at us.
I think I’m going to be sick.
“Well, come in, both of you,” Mrs. Thorn tuts, and Harley and I both dutifully follow her inside. I glance around and note it looks exactly the same as the last time I was here.
A heavy pit sits in my stomach at the thought of seeing Harley’s father. The man whose career I ruined. The man who no doubt hates me with every fiber of his being.
And I wouldn’t blame him.
My hands start to tremble as my breathing picks up, and I can feel myself starting to panic.
Why did I come here today? How can I sit and have dinner with the family I ruined? When will Harley realize a relationship between us is a lost cause because of what I did?
Harley’s hand grabs mine, and he leads me toward the stairs, leaving me to follow behind him numbly. He ushers me into a bedroom and makes me sit at the end of the bed before crouching in front of me, his eyes soft and expression worried.
“I can’t be here,” I croak, severely close to hyperventilating. “I can’t do this, Harley. After everything I did…” I trail off and shake my head.
Harley gives me a sad smile and rubs circles on my hand with his thumb. “Remember that time you kissed me in the library?” he asks, and I nod.
That was a really fucking hard time for me, and made me try to distance myself from him.
“I knew you’d been crying since the moment I laid eyes on you that day, and I had to force myself not to ask why. I wanted—no,needed—to know who made your eyes look all sad like that, but I made myself be quiet. And then you kissed me, and it felt like everything was right in the world. I wasn’t a man who hated you. I wasn’t a man who was forcing himself to stay away from you. I was just a guy who fell in love with a girl a long time ago, and everything was perfect. It felt like I wasbreathing for the first time after being deprived of oxygen for so long, but then reality hit me like a tidal wave, and I didn’t have a choice but to stop it.
“I spewed hateful words and even bit you, spitting your own blood in your face just to hurt you and make you feel the same pain I was feeling. I saw the heartbreak in your eyes, Sav. I saw the way you crumbled after you thought I left, but I never did. How could I?
“I watched you break, baby,” he whispers, his eyes filled with tears. “And I didn’t do a single thing to stop it. I didn’t do a single thing tohelpyou. That’s one of the memories that hurts the most, you know? Because I knew something was wrong, and I knew you were in pain, yet I didn’t do a single thing to help you. I didn’t eventry. And that’s what fucking kills me the most when I look back at everything.”
He takes a shaky breath and gathers my hands in his. “After you’d managed to pick yourself up off the floor, my emotions were a mess, and my feelings were all over the place, so I came back here. I drove four hours to the place where we began, hoping to remind myself why I was supposed to hate you, but all I could remember were the good times. Every time I tried to think about what happened, I was hit with the good memories. The times where you laughed, and I couldn’t take my eyes off you. I couldn’t hate you then, no matter what I thought you did, and my family will feel the same. The sins of your father are not yours to bear, not even if he used you to commit them. My family sees that, little devil. My family doesn’t hate you, they’re just happy I’m happy, okay?”
