Reverse (The Bittersweet Symphony Duet, #2)

by Kate Stewart

“Then it’s the music they relate to, my feelings, my experiences, maybe my politics or beliefs at the time I was feeling them when I wrote it. I don’t want to be held to some inhuman standard. I want to be able to make mistakes and evolve, just like everyone else. So, no, I’m not signing up for anything. I’m sharing my music. That’s it. I don’t want anything else from it.”

“Will you at least tell me what you’re thinking right now?” “I think you’re beautiful,” he rasps out, “and I feel sorry for you.”

“I want you to remember this moment. Right here, right now, just you and me in a fucking SUV, taking a drive to nowhere.” He looks at me pointedly. “Promise me you’ll remember this.”

“Where are we anyway?” His lips lift in a triumphant smile. “Lost.” I return his grin. “I can’t say I hate it.”

“You just fucking fell out of the sky, didn’t you?”

“I’m right here,”

Easton Crowne is not some budding star. He’s a supernova.

If what Easton said is true, and we live in echoes of defining moments, I want to remain in this one for as long as I possibly can.

“If you weren’t so determined to keep me out of your bed, I’d be fucking the breath out of you right now, Natalie.” I let out a shaky exhale as his erection brushes against me. “In my mind, I’ve already sunk inside you a thousand times.”

I hate so much that Easton Crowne is the most beautiful secret I’ll ever have and will forever be the one I’m forced to keep.

“Please, let me go,” I whisper. “I don’t think I can,” though quietly delivered, his reply is a direct hit.

“Easton, even if we could act on this, we live worlds apart.” “Not anymore,”

Easton properly kissed me, fucked me, and I’m certain—if we gave each other a chance—he might have been the one to properly love me.

“Beauty,” he fires back, unphased, continually running his fingers down my cheek. “I’m not letting this go, yet,

“This isn’t a game,” I whisper hoarsely. He sobers, pulling back slightly so I can clearly see the look in his eyes. “No, it’s not. You punched a hole in my goddamned chest in Seattle, only to leave me in the dark to try and figure out how to fill it.”

“That’s the thing, Beauty. With me, you rarely have to say a word.” “You keep calling me that.” “Yeah, well, it’s a large part of the reason I drove to Austin to collect the girl I met. Because that’s all I see when she reveals herself to me.” He runs a gentle thumb across my lower lip. “Raw. Fucking. Beauty.”

Simply put, she’s just fucking more.

“I can’t fall for you, Easton,” she whispers hoarsely. “I’ll lose everything I’ve worked for…my whole life is in Austin, my future.” “You’re already mine,”

“I can fucking do anything with you as long as you’re looking at me the way you are right now.”

“Admit you didn’t want to leave what happened in Seattle any more than I did, and you still don’t.”

“I’m not running.” “Sure, you aren’t. But just know, the second you step out of that door, we’ll both be settling for whatever’s out there after. At least I know I fucking will.”

I could tell you all day, every fucking day, that this is not what my life is on the road, but…actions speak louder, and though words are supposed to be your kryptonite, mine don’t seem to do shit.”

“I heard you in Seattle. Every word you said, and I took them to heart. So, what is this? This is my way of getting rid of what doubts I can control because this thing, this thing between us, to me, is worth the fucking effort.” Another step. “Intelligent men don’t let life-changing women pass them by without trying to grasp onto them with both hands. I don’t need endless months to figure out you’re that woman for me. I’m not most men, Natalie. I know exactly what I don’t want, and it’s everything outside of that door. What I do want is standing in front of me, and the idea of letting her walk away from me a second time is fucking eating me alive.”

“This is me fighting dirty for us both, so please just admit it so I can give you the best parts of me, because I want every fucking part of you.”

“Good,” I fire back, “because we don’t seem to agree on much lately.” “And we won’t when you fight me on what feels like mine.”

Inside of that kiss, I collide with my supernova going a million miles an hour, all space between us diminishing in its entirety.

The truth that our souls clicked seamlessly together before our bodies ever aligned, and it can no longer be denied or undone.

“I-I-I’m ruined. You’ve r-ruined me!” “Only fair.” I read his lips more than I’m able to hear him due to the increasing commotion surrounding us. “W-w-wh-hat the hell am I s-s-s-upposed to do now?” I sniff and shake my head as he clears the mascara beneath my eyes. He grips the sides of my face, his gaze prodding. “Marry me.”

“Baby, you have no idea how good it feels to know that you love me the same way I love you.” “And how do we love each other?” “Wholly, unconditionally, and definitively.”

“We have that.” “We do. The best part is, I didn’t have to want to be the guy for you. I already was.”

“The hell we are,” I bark between them. “We aren’t a bunch of lovesick teenagers, and this isn’t some rebellion against you. You both need to check yourselves and your personal issues. Your story is history. She and I, our marriage, are in the here and fucking now.”

FUCKING PREACH!

“Is this my fucking life, Reid? Is a Crowne man destined to swoop in and take everything that’s precious to me?”

Nate :(

“You came to Seattle for me. You found me, married me, you meant it,” he utters brokenly as I crack wide open.

“No, Beauty, no, you aren’t,” his tortured voice rips me to shreds. “You’re ending us. We’re everything that matters. Please,” he begs hoarsely, “come to me.”

“Every song has a memory; every song has the ability to make or break your heart, shut down the heart, and open the eyes. But I’m afraid if you look at a thing long enough; it loses all of its meaning. And your own life while it’s happening to you never has any atmosphere until it’s a memory.” Andy Warhol

“But too little, too late, right?” “Something like that.” “Something like that?” “Exactly like that,”

“You want truth? You want brutal honesty? The truth is, for the last two days, I’ve been sitting on the beach drowning in the realization that while loving you helped me recognize my worst fear, losing you left me living in it. Any life I live without you now will feel like settling.”