Read Online Torn by Love (Scarred by Love #4) by C. A. Harms - Free Book Online

spun her around. Her eyes grew wide, and I gripped her face in my hands before covering her mouth with mine. She melted against me as she held on to my hips.
    Intertwining my fingers with her hair, I lowered my other hand down her shoulder and brought it to rest on her lower back. We were both lost in the moment. The familiar taste of cherries only reminded me of how much I missed her flavor. Cherry had never appealed to me as much as it did now. It was my new favorite.
    I released her mouth and rested my forehead against hers. My heart was racing so fast I needed a moment to catch my breath.
    “Don’t wig out on me,” I breathed. Taking in another deep breath, I pulled back and looked down at her puzzled expression. “Just let me say this before you stop me.”
    She nodded, still holding my hips tightly. She never tried to pull away, which gave me hope that what I was about to say wouldn’t freak her out.
    “I want you, I want this,” I assured her. “Over the last weeks I’ve missed you. That shit’s not me, Lily, I don’t miss girls. But I went out of my fucking mind when you withdrew from me. The girls said give you time, and your brother and Sam kept me informed about how you were doing, but it wasn’t good enough. I have never in my life missed someone as much as I missed you. That’s gotta mean something.”
    She watched me without speaking a word, still holding me securely in her clenched hands. “I can’t promise you that I won’t screw up. In fact, I can admit that I probably will on more than one occasion. What I can promise is that I will do everything I can to make you smile—and laugh. I just want a chance to be with you. I’m willing to take a step I have never taken before and see where this takes us.”
    I felt like I had just run a marathon; my heart pounded so rapidly, I felt like it would beat straight out of my chest. This was unlike me. A relationship had never been something I wanted. Until now.
    Lily stared back at me, her chest rising gently as she breathed. She slowly inched her hands around my waist and locked them at my back. My stomach tensed at the thought of her rejecting me—another feeling I had never worried about before now. The strong urge to kiss her filled me, and I thought maybe I should give her something more to seal the deal. Only I refused that urge.
    “You scare me,” she confessed, and my stomach dropped. I started to speak only to have her shush me with her finger against my lips. “Not in the way you’re thinking,” she assured me. “You scare me because you’re intense. You’re something I’ve longed for yet never thought I would be given the chance to experience. Now that you’re offering, I’m terrified to take the risk.”
    Panic hit me. Was she telling me no?
    “There’s this guy,” she said. Jealousy filled my gut, and rage began to take over. “He taught me how to be stronger—for me. He taught me I wasn’t a weak link but a fighter.” She paused, smiling up at me. “Thank you for all you’ve given me.”
    This was it. She was about to tell me we could never be more than friends, and the thought of that made me sick.

 
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
    Chapter Fifteen
     
     
    Lily
     
    I was trying to hold it together.
    After I met Tanner, I had waited for him to show me even the slightest bit of attention, yet he always treated me like an innocent girl. His bad-boy image intrigued me, and he was the kind of guy I had always longed for.
    But over the last couple of months, I was able to see a different side of him, a side he rarely showed—after all, his brothers were always waiting for the chance to pay him back for the sarcastic comments he had dished out over the years. If only they knew how sweet he could be, how kind he had been when I needed him most. He still carried that cocky attitude, the one I loved to hate. Yet when I needed a shoulder to lean on, he was more than willing to be my rock.
    Now here we stood in the house he had