“It was good to see you again.” My words come out so quick they sound all jumbled as I stand up from my seat. I give them both an apologetic smile. I was really looking forward to catching up with them, but I’m seconds away from losing Beck’s retreating form in the crowd of diners.
“We’ll speak with you later, darling,” Beck’s mom says, giving me a soft smile. I don’t even bother to look at Carter. It’s beyond me how I gave years of my life to that man. He fails in comparison now that I’ve gotten to know Beck. It’s wild to me that I’d spent weeks crying over someone who clearly didn’t deserve me. Hell, I don’t know if any woman deserves him. He’s as pathetic as they come.
I give them one last wave before I rush toward the exit. Beck disappeared in the few seconds it took me to say goodbye to his parents. When I fly out the front doors of the building, I’m disappointed when I don’t see Beck anywhere. My heart thumps in my chest as I look in every direction, trying to find where he went.
Fighting past the panic of where he went, worried about how angry he was and him being alone, I pick a direction and search for his body through the throng of people. He’s nowhere in sight. I stop in front of a narrow alleyway, pulling my phone from my handbag in hopes I’ll be able to get ahold of him.
I’m about to click on his name in my contacts when a hand snakes around my waist and pulls me deeper into the alleyway. I let out a loud shriek, gasping for air as I prepare to scream for help. The body engulfs my back, pulling me against a familiar chest. I’d know him anywhere by his smell, the scent I’ve grown far too attached to.
“Beck.” I let out a sigh of relief, only now realizing how worried about him I was.
He turns my body to face his, backing me up until my shoulders hit the brick of a building. I immediately wrap my arms around his middle, going underneath his suit jacket so I can feel the heat of his body as I do my best to comfort him.
His hand comes up to cradle the back of my head, holding it against his chest. “I’m so furious he spoke like that to you, Margo,” he admits, his voice hoarse. “I can’t begin to apologize enough on his behalf.”
I squeeze him tighter, relieved to have found him. His heart beats against my ear, the rhythm wild and untamed. “You don’t have to apologize for him.”
“He never should have spoken to you like that. Fuck, I could kill him for that.”
Pulling away, I cradle his cheeks between my hands. He presses his left cheek deeper into my palm, his eyes searching my face frantically. “Forget about it. It doesn’t matter.”
“Of course it fucking matters.”
I shake my head at him. God, the intensity in his eyes has me locked in a trance. I’m drawn to the pure anger radiating from him. I feel something deep inside that his anger is in defense of me. “It doesn’t. Not one bit. We’re what matters, Beck. Not him.”
A muscle ticks angrily away at his jaw, like a visible countdown before he loses the restraint of his control. He places his forehead against mine, taking a deep breath. For a long moment, we breathe in each other’s air. I hope my steady breaths help calm his erratic ones.
“No one gets to talk to you like that. I don’t care if you love him or have history. I’m not okay with it.”
“Loved.”
“Like past tense?”
I could die from the vulnerability in his eyes. The sounds of the city echo in the distance, but I’m lost in his dark eyes, the blue the same color of the ocean from our first night together. I pin my focus on him and only him. “Yes, past tense. If you could ever even call it that to begin with.”
A shaky breath falls from his lips, tickling my face. “Fuck, you have no idea how much I needed to hear that,” he confesses.
My hands tighten on his face, my pulse racing with nerves. “Can I tell you something else?”
“Anything.”
“I’m afraid the other Sinclair brother will steal my heart.”
“Margo. Don’t say things you don’t mean.”
My hands shake against his cheeks. I’m so nervous to come clean, but I can’t hold it back. In the process of working with him, or pretending, I haven’t been able to help myself. I’ve caught feelings for him. “I’m not,” I answer with conviction. “Beck,” my voice quakes as I stare into his deep indigo blue eyes. “I think through all the pretending, I’ve started to wish for all of this to be real. I have feelings for you. The kind of feelings I’m afraid won’t fade. The kind that I’m scared that soon will solidify themselves so deep in my soul that I don’t know if I’ll ever remember what it was like to not have my heart want you desperately.”
He lets out a long breath of relief, his entire body visibly showing the tension leaving his body. “I’ve been waiting so god damn long to hear you say that.” His fingers tangle in my hair as he brings my face to mine, kissing me with so much reverence I can’t help but think that maybe he feels the same way too.
The sound of a loud whistle a few feet away from us breaks us apart. We pull away, looking toward where the sound came from. We find Ezra pulled up to the curb, his passenger side window rolled down with a smirk on his lips. “Would you two like to get back to get a room?” he asks smoothly, a teasing tone to his voice.
I laugh, pressing my face into Beck’s chest. It feels like I’m floating on cloud nine. I couldn’t imagine a better place to tell him how suddenly things are changing for me. It doesn’t feel fake. It feels incredibly real. I’m falling for him. Fast and hard, no doubt causing me a few bumps and bruises to my heart when this is all said and done. There isn’t anywhere else I’d rather confess that to him than with the bustling city behind us. The perfect backdrop of a monumental moment.
Beck wraps his arms around my shoulders, keeping me pressed into his clean dress shirt. “You couldn’t have waited a few more minutes?” he yells to his friend.
“Sorry, Mr. Sinclair,” Ezra responds. “You told me to hurry when you called all pissed off. I was only following your direction.”
Beck scoffs, planting a kiss to my head before he pulls away. As we walk toward the car, he wraps his large hand over mine. I could get used to it. Get used to this with him, just the two of us holding hands through the city.
Before we get into the car, Beck tugs on my hand, pulling me into his hard body. “Hey, Margo?”
“Yeah?”
“I know technically you’re my fiancée, but will you be my girlfriend?”
I laugh, marveling how five minutes ago he was so mad I was worried that he was going to go back into the restaurant and beat Carter’s face in. Now pure happiness shines in his eyes, forming in little crinkles next to his eyes.
“Beck, I’m already your fiancée. I think it’s passed girlfriend.” To prove my point, I lay my hand on his chest, the diamond catching both of our attentions.
“Just say yes, Violet.”
“I feel myself always saying yes to you.”
He leans in, his breath tickling my cheek. He softly tucks my hair that blows in the wind behind my ear. “This one feels so much better.”
“Why?”
His smile gets so wide, it takes my breath away. How is he real? How is he mine? How do I keep him forever?
“Because it’s real.”
“Real,” I repeat breathlessly, my heart soaring.
“This one is for nobody else but us.”
I nod, fighting happy tears. Falling for him may have been putting it lightly. As I slide into the car, a huge grin on my face, I wonder if in a New York minute, I’ve already fallen.
