K. Robinson - Tainted

She stood up and came a few steps closer to me. She stopped when she was close enough to grab the paper out of my hand. I waited while she read what I hoped was my saving grace. It was my certificate of completion from the rehab center in Los Angeles.

“You really did it then?” She stared down at the paper in her hands.

“Yeah, I did. You were all I thought about while I was in there. I screwed up so bad with you, Chloe, and I want to make it right. I want to make us right.”

“It’s not that simple, Drake. You really hurt me. You let me walk off that bus without even trying to stop me. I’m glad that you got help, but I don’t think I can go through that again.”

“I’m so sorry for what I did, Chloe. I promise you that I will never do anything like that again.”

“How can you be sure, Drake? You’re just starting out in an industry that is full of drugs and sex. Can you really walk side by side with temptation on a daily basis and not give in? Drugs will be easy to get, and women will be lining up for you. It’ll be worse than when we were together. I can’t handle that kind of life. I won’t share you with them.”

“Then, come with me. Stay by my side every night so that you know you can trust me.”

“What?” Her eyes widened in shock.

“I said, come with me. That’s why I came back, Chloe. I want you back, and I want you by my side through all of this.”

“You can’t just walk back into my life and expect me to drop everything for you, Drake. Even if I did want to give us another chance, I have responsibilities here, like school and my part of the rent for this place.”

“So, stay here until you’re finished with school for the year. Then, you can take online classes and come on tour with us. Thanks to me, we’re still in the studio, recording tracks for our first album, and we will be there for a few months. We won’t start touring until several months from now.”

“This is insane, Drake!” she shouted.

“Please, Chloe. I love you. I want to spend every second of my life with you from now until the day I die. I can’t live without you,” I pleaded.

This had gone so much better in my head. While I knew she would be angry, I had hoped that I wouldn’t have to resort to groveling to get her to take me back. If I had to though, I would. I would rather die than spend one more day without her.

“I don’t want to get hurt again, Drake,” she whispered. “I can’t take it.”

I grabbed her and pulled her into my arms. She struggled at first, but I held on tight, refusing to let her go.

“I will never hurt you again, Chloe. Never. Let me prove it to you.”

I pressed my lips to hers and kissed her like I was dying, like it was the last kiss we would ever share because it might just be our last. When I let her go, she might slap me and then never speak to me again. If she did, I wanted to remember the feel of her lips against mine for the rest of my life.

Despite what she’d said, her body responded to me instantly. She wrapped her arms around me and kissed me back, showing me just how much she still wanted me. I groaned as her lips parted, and I slipped my tongue inside her mouth, flicking my tongue ring against her tongue in a way that I knew drove her crazy.

She moaned in response before quickly pulling away. “What are we doing?”

“I’m not sure what you were doing, but I was kissing the woman I love.”

“I love you, too, Drake, and I do want to be with you. There’s no way that I can deny that now, but if we do this again, we’re going to take it slow and start over. I don’t know how this is going to work with you being so far away though.”

A smile broke out across my face. If I had known a kiss was all it would take to change her mind, I would have done that first.

“We’ll figure it out. We always do.” I kissed her softly. “But I can’t agree to the taking-it-slow part.”

“Why not?” she asked, confused.

I reached into my pocket and pulled out a small box. “After I checked out of rehab, the first thing I did was stop at the jewelry store, and I picked this up.”

Her mouth dropped open as I lowered myself to one knee and opened the box to reveal a sparkling diamond ring.

“Oh my God,” she whispered.

Before I met Chloe, if someone told me I would be down on one knee, asking the woman I loved to marry me, I would have kicked that person’s ass. Before her, marriage had been nothing more than a trap that others fell into. I was too smart for that, or so I had thought.

“Chloe Marie Richards, I never thought I would ever be one of those dumbasses who loves a woman so much he wants to tie himself to her forever, but here I am, down on one knee, trying to think of something sweet and romantic to say. As you can tell, I’m failing miserably, so will you please put me out of my misery and say yes if I ask you to marry me?”

She laughed as I stared up at her.

“I don’t know. You’ll have to ask me to find out.”

“I thought I just did.”

“No, you asked me if I would say yes if you asked me to marry you. It’s not the same.”

I groaned. “You’re not going to make this easy on me, are you?”

“After the last six months? I think not. You’re lucky that I haven’t thrown you out yet.”

“Fine. Chloe, will you please marry me? I promise to love and cherish you forever and always, and I promise to give you lots of mind-blowing sex every day.”

“Even when we’re ninety and walking with canes?” she asked with a serious look on her face.

“Damn it, quit stalling! Will you marry me or not?”

“Well, since you asked me so nicely, I guess I have to now.” She laughed.

“That was a yes, right?”

“That was a yes.”

I let out a breath I hadn’t realized I had been holding as I pulled the ring from the box and slipped it onto her finger. “Thank God.”

“Aren’t you going to kiss me or something now? You’re not very good at this, you know.”

“I was getting to that part, smart-ass.” I stood back up and pulled her into my arms. “I can’t wait until you’re Mrs. Drake Allen. Hell, maybe even one day, we will have two-point-five children and live in a log cabin by a lake.”

She grinned. “I never understood that whole point-five thing, but I wouldn’t mind kids someday. I love you, Drake. I don’t think I could be any happier than I am right now.”

“Me, too, baby. Me, too.” I attacked her mouth.

I was going to make up for every lost moment with her even if it took me all night or all year. I didn’t care. I had her in my arms, and there was nothing in this world that would ever tear us apart.

I knew we had a lot to figure out, especially with me living in Los Angeles now, but I wasn’t worried. Sometimes, life threw curveballs, but other times, it seemed like everything fell into place. I was determined to make sure Chloe had her happily ever after, starting right now.

Three Months Later

I zipped the last bag and threw it on top of the pile of stuff sitting beside my bedroom door. This was it. I was really doing it. I was going to move across the country to be with Drake. I couldn’t help but wonder if I’d lost my damn mind. I was giving up everything to take a chance on someone who had broken me. I loved him though, and I knew in my heart that I was doing the right thing. We still had so many issues to work through, but I was willing to try if it meant spending the rest of my life with him.

Three months had passed since he’d appeared on my porch after over six months of no contact. The next day, he’d gone back to Los Angeles to record more songs for the album. Since then, he had tried on more than one occasion to get back to me, but it hadn’t worked out. With the album, photo shoots, promotions, and everything else they could throw at him, the label had kept him busy constantly, so he hadn’t been able to leave. We’d talked several times a week, but it hadn’t been the same.

Now, I was going to be with him daily. We’d done little to work through our issues. We hadn’t wanted to do it over the phone, but we could finally start now. I wasn’t sure if moving in with him while working on our relationship was going to be a good thing or not. I just hoped that it would be. I wanted things to go back to the way they had been between us. I was starting to heal from what he had done, but I wasn’t quite there yet. I needed to be with him, so we could do it together.

A knock sounded on my bedroom door, and Logan popped his head in. “You got a sec?”

“Sure. Come on in.”

He stepped inside and closed the door behind him. “I see you’re packed and ready to go.”

I nodded. “Yeah, I just finished. I don’t think it has sunk in yet that I’m actually leaving. It’s going to be so scary to start over thousands of miles away from home.”

He sat down beside me and pulled me close. “I’m going to miss you, Chloe. It won’t be the same around here without you.”

“Don’t lie. You’ll finally be rid of me. You’re probably planning a party to celebrate my departure!” I joked.

“Not even close. I’m going to pop some popcorn and cuddle up with a blanket on the couch to watch Johnny Depp or some stupid girlie shit like that.”

I laughed. “You will not watch Johnny without me. It’s in our friendship code.”

“I wouldn’t watch it with you, so there’s no chance I’m watching it without you. I hate that stupid pirate movie.”

“Don’t hate on Johnny. He helped me through some really rough times.”