Until We Meet Again (Breaking the Rules #1)

by Lea Rose

was broken, Tessa, and I didn't think I could ever heal what was shattered inside me, but that all changed the day I met you. You brought me back to life, and I don't think you understand how beautiful you make my world just by existing in it." I've been trying to move on from him, and now he's here pouring his heart out to me, and it's all too much. "I should've told you that you're everything I dream about, you're everything I think about, and god, I hate that I'm about to do this without being able to hold you, but I love you, Tessa. I'm so in love with you."

"I just want you. I want us. I want those quiet Sunday mornings where we don't have anywhere to be, where I can read to you while you fall back asleep in my arms before I worship your body like the goddess you are. I want fifty years from now, when we're gray and wrinkled, sitting on the porch of the home we built together with a bunch of grandkids running around us." A tear slips from my eye as my lip quivers, and he reaches for me, his thumb catching the wetness on my cheek. "I want to build a life with the woman I'm crazy about."

"You scare me, Zane." My raw truth. "I can't live my life expecting you to flip out and run away from me. I can't do it and won't put myself through it." "Never going to happen." "You can't promise me that." "I can, but you don't trust me to love you, do you?" "Can you blame me?" "No, I get it," he answers with nothing but sincerity. "But I'll do whatever it takes to show you that I'm here for as long as you want me, but I really hope it's forever." His words gnaw at my heart, and a pang of

"You feel it, don't you?" he asks, his eyes filled with hunger. "This pull, this love—it's there. I know you feel it, Tessa."

I remember something he once told me—it isn't hell if you like the way it burns—and god, do I love the way it burns. My skin, my heart, the depths of my very being, and the burn between my legs that can only be put out by him, as if he were the devil who lit up hell and only he could control the flames.

"My sister once told me that when she got to heaven, she'd send me my soulmate and that she would be an angel." He takes a deep breath before he continues. "You need to know, Tessa, that I'm not into

the idea of ever living without you, but it's always your choice, and your happiness will always come before mine." Tears prick the corners of my eyes as I realize the depth of this man's feelings for me. He studies my face as if it were for the last time, his eyes fixed on every part of me as if he's carving me into his memory. "But you will always belong with me."

"Missed you? I felt like I couldn't breathe without you."

"I want you to fuck me like your whore," she says with determination, confidently demanding what she wants, knowing that I'm the only man who will ever give it to her. That's my girl.

"I suppose the first thing I should say to you is thank you. If you helped bring Zane and me together, then I need to thank you because I feel like I've hit the jackpot with him. Even if he spent a little too much time behaving like an ass." I close my eyes again and smile, allowing myself to feel every bit of my love for him. "I promise his heart is safe with me, and I'll love him for the rest of my life. I'm also going to try to bring him home to you, but you know how stubborn he is." I laugh and feel a surge of energy rush through my body, and I choose to believe that Kim approves of this idea, too. He's peaceful here. "They've set aside a seat for you at the wedding tomorrow, right next to me and your mom," I say. "I hope that's okay." I stand there for a few more minutes, unsure what to say or whether I should say anything at all, and when I feel ready to leave, I make my way back to Zane. He waits for me by the cemetery's towering gates, casually leaning against a wall with legs crossed at the ankles and arms folded over his chest. As I approach, he draws me closer to his body, and

My girl gives me a reason to live while also giving me something I would die for, and I need her by my side until I take my last breath.

"I wanna marry you, sweetheart." She slightly buckles in my arms, staring into my eyes as I hold her body close. "When?" she asks with a trembling breath. "I would've married you the day I bought this a year ago." Releasing her, I drop to one knee and pull a small black box from my pants pocket. I open the box, showing her the diamond ring that perfectly matches the earrings she's wearing in her ears. The ones I bought her for graduation. "I told you that the next time I bought you diamonds, I'd be down on one knee asking you the most important question of my life."

"You make me so fucking happy, Tessa." She bites back a smile, tears glistening in her eyes. "I've been thinking about this moment for a long time. You'd think I'd know what to say." I gaze up at her, overwhelmed by how much love I feel. "God, I just want to marry you. I want to call you my wife and spend the rest of my life loving you." As tears stream down her face, she nods, and I slide the ring onto her finger, feeling her hands trembling in mine.

In this moment, I know our love will last for the rest of our days. And when I'm no longer here and my soul reaches the heavens, I'll whisper to the stars about her until we meet again.

He's more than just my husband. He's my peace, my heart, my safe place, and my home.