Page 52 of Dear Future Husband (The Dearly Written #1)

What was I thinking? I couldn’t bear my soul to this boy. All I was doing was hurting him. I needed to stop. I needed to get out, leave him be.

Packing up my few belongings, I kept the journal tied up in my hands as I stood from the bed. I avoided Trey’s eyes as I strode to the bedroom door on wobbly knees. My fingers circled the brass knob. Just before I turned it to let myself out, I gathered my courage and looked back at him.

He was watching me. Pain in his eyes as he let me leave.

I was doing it again. Running away before giving him the full truth.

“I’m not dating Sam,” I forced out. “I never was—I-I didn’t choose him.”

Trey’s expression didn’t change. He kept his jaw set, his body rigid, but his eyes tightened curiously. When he didn’t speak, I reached back for the door. I was content, knowing I told him the truth.

That was enough for now.

But as the cold metal knob turned against my palm, I was torn off it, spun and pinned against the door. Trey’s hands were twisting into the hem of my shirt, gripping me to him. My breathing was deep, quick. Each breath, each second and each pull closer had me pressing into his chest.

He seemed to notice too, as his green eyes fixated on how my body heaved with each inhale and exhale.

“Promise?” he asked, his grasp on my shirt going taut against my back, leaving absolutely no room between us. “It’s over between you two?”

I gaped up at him, trying and failing to recover a semblance of coolness. “Trey—Sam and I never started. It was a misunderstanding, but I was never his .”

With one hand, I latched onto the waistband of his sweats to stabilize myself. Feeling somewhat off-kilter, I inhaled and absorbed his spicy, cinnamon-sweet aroma. Unfortunately, my other hand still held my bag and journal.

The smile that spread across Trey’s face was infatuating. One of his hands slid up my torso, brushing past my chest, to cup my cheek. “What does that mean, May? For me... For us?”

Caution coated his words, his movements. Almost like he wasn’t sure what I was saying was real or pretend.

“It means I’m done running.”

Eyes and smile going soft, he used his free hand to pull my things from my grasp, setting them on his dresser.

“Is this the point the couple finally gets together in those romance books of yours?” he asked, with both hands holding to me. Before I could respond, he nestled his nose into the exposed area of my throat.

My head fell back against the door as I sighed. “What would you know about the books I read?”

He pulled away, only far enough for me to make out the dark patches of forest green against the viridescent lighting of his eyes. “I know because any book I see you reading, I buy, and I read it too.”

I eyed him, my fingers tangled with the material of his soft shirt. “Whatever. I snooped all over this room. I didn’t see a single book.”

Trey’s eyebrows rose, but not out of surprise.

They rose in a silent, of course you did , before he nodded to the nightstand next to his bed.

The same nightstand I had, in fact, missed out on scouring because of Trey being sick and interrupting my search.

“I have an e-reader. It’s in the bottom drawer and believe me when I tell you, I’ve read every book you have. ”

“Why?” The question popped out of me.

His smile never faltered as he said, “Because I want to know you, May. I want to know the things you like, love, hate and dream about. I want to know what entertains you or gets your heart going faster. I want to know where your mind goes when it wants to get away. I want to know what makes you, you.”

My mouth gaped wide open. I couldn’t keep my cool now. I blushed and admired the man still drawing me in. This big, athletic boy had read every little smutty romance I had, merely because he’d seen me reading it.

“Okay, I’ll admit, that’s cute. But again, I have to ask, why ?”

Those eyes were tearing into me again, returning with the tight, heavy feeling of the moment between us. Trey looked at me like I may be the only way to breathe as he held onto me and said, “Because I fell in love with you.”

His words escaped him like a long held in breath. I wanted to kiss the words from his lips so I could know the genuine, passionate taste of them. I paused before giving into the unmistakable draw.

“You fell in love with me? You mean before—before I lost my memories?”

The answer to this question was essential, dire. I knew from reading my journal, from the stories and our friends that I was far from the same girl who originally fell asleep all those months ago.

Was Trey in love with a memory I didn’t possess or the girl who woke up ?

“May, I fell in love with you while you were sleeping,” he said, then reached by me, grabbing and holding up my priceless journal.

“Before your accident, I liked you, but that is all it was. I hardly knew you. But after you fell asleep, and I stumbled upon this,” he said as he shook the book for emphasis.

“I fell in love with you, your mind, your heart. The more I got to know about you, the more I fell in love. I fall more every day because you woke up the woman I learned about through the pages of this book. I see you, May. You are a rarity that I want to continue to learn about, study and understand every moment of every day for the rest of my life.”

I was spinning at unearthly speeds, flying above the clouds, and falling from dizzying heights.

I may not have remembered loving anyone in my life.

May not have remembered any past crushes or relationships, but in this moment.

.. I knew without a doubt that I’d never been more seen or loved than the way Trey Turner saw and loved me.

And I loved him right back.

“I wasn’t pretending, and you were never second pick,” I quietly released into the slowly shrinking space between us. His eyes went wide with my honesty. “I’m yours, Trey. I’ve always been yours.”

The deep, weight-relieving sigh he let out had him melting into me more as he murmured against my hair, “I’ve waited so long for this.” His hands encircled me, and he molded me to him, our foreheads now resting against one another.

“I missed you,” I breathed. “Especially for our morning walks. I hated walking alone.”

His grip on my body tightened. “You weren’t alone.”

My eyes shot up to find his. “What?”

The coy chuckle Trey released was utterly delicious. “I waited outside your apartment every morning and trailed behind you like a freak. ”

That would explain the uneasy feeling of being watched. Shaking my head against his, I couldn’t contain my smile. “Of course you did.”

He sniffed, then took my chin in his fingers and made me look at him. “I made a promise that you would never walk alone again, and I keep my promises.” His thumb found my lips, pressing into them like a gentle kiss.

“I’m going to kiss you now,” he said, and I smiled as I tied my arms around his neck.

“It’s about time.”

Then he was kissing me. The act was languid. He was savoring it. Drawing out and appreciating every single second, every touch. Every new overwhelmingly beautiful feeling that sparked to life in the non-existent space between us.

His hands glided and explored up and down my waist, across my stomach. One of his hands effortlessly laced itself around the base of my neck while the other now gripped the back of my knee. He drew my leg up his thigh and hooked it around his waist.

Then I was in the air as Trey wrapped both my legs around his middle. He carried me to his bed and laid me beneath him.

He admired me as he lifted a hand to caress my temple and the framing curls of my hair.

“Let me show you all the things I could only dream of doing while I waited for you to pick me,” he said.

In answer, I sat up with him, so we both knelt on the mattress. I helped him remove his shirt and then he was slipping off mine.

I followed his movements, where his eyes landed as I revealed myself to him.

That emerald stare gripped my throat. It caressed the rise and fall of my breathing, intensified on the now bare expanses of my skin.

His hands went to the waistband of my pants.

He tugged me to him so he could more easily plant kisses along my jawline, down my neck and across my shoulders .

“Is this what you want, May?” he asked into my burning skin, and I shuddered. He stopped then to look me in the eye as he waited. I was speechless, breathing too heavy, body boneless.

“I want you, Trey,” I began, not entirely coherent. “I want you to know me, all of me.”

He crushed his mouth against mine and lowered me back into his bed. “You’re so beautiful,” he hummed against my stomach, as he slowly undid my pants. He stood from the bed, slipping my jeans off with ease. Then his sweats were on the floor.

Trey was back above me, fingering the strap of my bra. “Sit up for me, please.”

I did, and Trey smirked as he undid the band. “So obedient,” he chuckled, and I glared up at him.

“Enjoy it while it lasts.”

His deep laughter rumbled through me. “Oh, I plan to.”

Together we learned, taught, and received every blissful touch, feeling, and movement. As Trey promised, he loved and learned every bit of me. In a rhythm and intensity that had us both diving over the edge of pure satiated contentment.

I was home, cradled against him under the covers, feeling every bit of his body against my exposed skin.

“Mayhem,” he said onto the back of my neck as he trailed a line of kisses along the tops of my shoulders.

“Hmm?”

He wrapped his arm around my waist, trying to pull me closer. “You’re endgame for me,” he breathed as he nipped at my ear.

“What does that mean?” I snorted.

He pressed a long kiss between my shoulder blades before lifting himself up on an elbow.

He hovered over me as he said, “It means I love you and I’ll always love you.” His forest green focus lined with glassy emotion as he brushed a stray hair from my face. “I’ve waited a long time to tell you that.”

I put a gentle hand on his cheek, brought him to me and I kissed him. I kissed him like I could kiss away the past, all the heartache and loneliness he faced, and keep him here with me. Keep him in this blissful moment of peace in one another’s embrace.

When we parted, I pressed my forehead against his and held him there as I whispered, “I love you too, Trey Turner. You’re my endgame too.”