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“It’s been a whole damn year, Kee. A year of me loving you, and a year of you wanting me to keep it a secret. For what?”
“You can have me here,” I whispered. “Just not out there.” “I want you every-fucking-where.”
“I’ll never be your friend.” The words came out fast with fury. “I’ve told you I love you; I’ve promised myself to you. I want to marry you…not be your friend.” She gasped at my confession, yet I continued on. “You’ve always been my girl, my girlfriend, my future wife. Nothing less. Don’t you get that? I promised you forever, Kee.”
“I don’t know, Kee. All I know is that you said you didn’t love me once.” “I didn’t mean it.” I stepped back and away from her. “Yes, well, I mean it when I say I don’t love you now.” I didn’t mean it either.
“You come to my casino, my resort, have your fuckboy of a boyfriend propose on my property. And you’re wearing his ring like it belongs on your finger. Tell me it’s a joke. Say. It.”
“Because I could only look at you all night.” He combed a hand through his thick hair. “I’ve been with her for two years, and it’s been damn near fifteen years without you,” he said, and his voice suddenly held all the pain I felt. “And yet I hear your voice on that stage, look at you singing, and I still only want you.”
Dex Hardy, in a three-piece suit and all grown up, stood in front of me, ready to take over my world. And then he leaned in close and whispered in my ear, “Because your ass knows. You’re not marrying anyone but me.”
Keelani wasn’t a woman I could get out of my system. She instead got in there, rearranged it all, and rewrote my DNA. I knew it the second I saw her on that stage tonight, singing a song that wasn’t on any of her albums. I was ashamed to admit I knew them all by heart.
“Bend over the counter and face the window. Look out at the city I rule and feel how I’m going to rule you too.”
“Now, want me fuck you nice, like this means something, or fuck you rough, like I hate you for all you’ve done?”
Plus, pop stars are supposed to show a little skin.” Olive shook her head. “Not that much skin. I wanted a Marilyn Monroe classic, not Big Bird from Sesame Street at the club.”
“I’ll always stand when you enter a room, heartbreaker. You were the woman of my dreams for years and then the woman of my nightmares. Either way, you deserve respect for that.”
And like the best friend he was, he caught it. “Just so we’re clear, I’m your man of honor, not that fucker’s best man. And I get to make a long-ass speech if I want to. You guys have put me through hell.”
“We’ve always been together. Even when we weren’t. And we always will be too, Kee. I’m always going to protect you.”
“Don’t you see that I’m not marrying you for the contract, Kee? I’m marrying you because you’re mine. This pussy is mine. Your heart, your soul, this is all mine.” He stared at the cameras as he said it. “And no one fucks with what is mine.”
“I think I might be falling in love with you, Dex.” “Well, good. At least the fall is starting for you. I’m so far down the hill, I need you to catch up at some point. Now, you did interrupt a meeting with the president. Want to say sorry?”
“You’re giving me every orgasm I want to take, heartbreaker. Forever. Your future husband deserves to see you come apart again and again.”
“We do huge things for family though right? And you’re family. You’re mine. I’ll go to hell and burn there for all I care. You think I won’t?” He stopped what he was doing to stare at me then. He was daring me to disagree.
“We will sift through our baggage for the rest of our lives together. Remember that, heartbreaker. When you meet me at the altar tomorrow, know that if you say I do, it’s for forever with me. Not someone else. You’ll never be with someone else again.”
that’s how I’d chosen to live with him from then on. Without explanations. Without apologies. Without fear. But with confidence. With love. And with my Dex.
