Total pages in book: 65
Estimated words: 64617 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 323(@200wpm)___ 258(@250wpm)___ 215(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 64617 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 323(@200wpm)___ 258(@250wpm)___ 215(@300wpm)
A moan escaped her pouty lips when I abruptly stood, removing all my clothes. Laying her down on the mattress to kiss my way up her body. Looking profoundly at her until we were face to face. Our connection searing its way into our souls.
“I love you.”
She panted, “I love you too.”
I would forever remember this moment as the first time everything was right in our world, because we finally became one…
As husband and wife.
Chapter 23
<>Camila<>
Now
__________
My heart was in my throat, proceeding to watch such a private moment between two people, who were obviously madly in love with each other. Simultaneously, an uncontrollable surge of emotions rushed over me with a sudden queasiness settling in the pit of my stomach.
I found it hard to take a breath, let alone inhale multiple breaths trying to maintain my afflicted composure.
What was this reaction for a man I barely knew and hadn’t met?
My mind began churning with uncertainty, mimicking the contents of my stomach as it rose to the back of my throat.
My core sped up with each word that fell from his lips, from his heart, from the place inside of him that only belonged to her.
“I can’t live without you. You’re my heart, Bay. You’ll always be my heart.”
And from every word that fell from hers in the same place she resided.
“I know. You’re mine too, Aiden. Life has been hard for us, but I wouldn’t change it for anything because it’s what led me to you.”
Tears started pooling in my eyes, clouding my vision, my judgement, my goddamn mind.
My heart sped faster…
My thoughts even faster.
A whirlwind of sentiments ran over me, leaving a trail of urgency behind.
I felt the happy tears running down her face as if they were my own.
Was I crying?
Why was I crying?
He wasn’t mine to cry over.
It was like I was her and she was me. An eerie shiver hit my body hard. I could physically feel her happiness, her joy, her love…
Their love.
Their pain.
The need to be wanted, needed, adored just the same.
It was right there in front of me, unfolding in the depths of my soul. This picture-perfect couple, their fairytale and happy ending I’d imagined in my mind so many times, I lost count.
What they looked like together.
How they spoke to one another.
The sounds of their voices and the way they were with each other.
It was as beautiful as it was devastating to endure. The way he worshiped her, the way she returned the devotion. What I thought didn’t even compare to what I was seeing before me.
What I was experiencing on their journey of becoming husband and wife.
I stayed there like that, frozen in time. Sitting at a standstill with them. Lost in a world where true love prevailed. The laughing, the smiling, the unity of what they were. Living, breathing, it was all real around me.
I needed to move, I needed to get up and turn it off, I needed to do a lot of things, but I couldn’t get my body to move. Not an inch or for a second. I had to experience it with them whether I wanted to or not.
It wasn’t right. It was wrong. What I was doing was so very wrong.
I sat there battling an internal struggle, my heart was going to explode. It was beating uncontrollably. I was there but I wasn’t.
And then...
Everything went cold.
I felt him before I even turned around to face the consequences of my actions. For watching his proposal, his wedding to a woman who wasn’t here.
Where was she?
Where was Bailey?
It was the never-ending question the man behind me could only answer.
I felt his misery.
His agony.
His isolation and despair.
I felt it all, stabbing a knife into my back. Over and over and over again.
My hand immediately went to my chest, my heart breaking, shattering to the ground. Only emphasizing where fragments of his laid next to mine.
Nothing could have prepared me for the sequence of events that happened next. The unbearable weight of his demons were beyond my control. I surrendered to them.
I surrendered to him.
Longing for the resolutions in a situation I still had no idea about. He wanted to brand me with his devastation, and there I sat willingly taking every marking. It gave me comfort in a place I knew was about to turn ugly.
“You’re the beat in my heart, the blood running through my veins… I can’t promise you that tomorrow will be easy, or that there aren’t rough roads ahead, but I can promise you that I will forever be there with you, standing beside you, holding your hand, loving you with everything that I am. I thank God every day for the gift that is you.”
More tears slid down my cheeks, adding to my frazzled state. The desire to fall apart was there. I was on the cusp of losing a battle I wasn’t equipped for.