Revive Me, Part Two: The Affair (New Haven, #3)

by J.L. Seegars

“Because even when I’m not getting along with your daughter, I still end up treating her a million times better than you have. Because you’re not a good mother. Because you’re not even a good human.”

Periodt Nic

I forfeited that right when I left New Haven under a cloak of shame. With a fiance I didn’t want and the fragments of Mallory Kent’s heart ground into the soles of my shoes. Mallory.

Stupid

Because none of my reasons matter, and Mallory didn’t know about them. All she knew was that I left her, that I hurt her, that I confirmed every fear she’d ever had about trusting a man that wasn’t Eric or Nic.

Mallory and I weren’t good together. We were great. We were a collision of destiny and inevitability. We were fate personified. We were everything. And now, we’re nothing.

That had been one of my biggest regrets about that night. Listening to him, hoping he’d say something that would make everything okay even when it was clear that nothing between us would ever be okay again.

But that’s what Chris and I are, what we’ve always been. A natural disaster. A tornado of tumultuous emotion that sucked us both in, but only left me ruined.

“You sleeping with my brother doesn’t upset me, Giselle, but your insistence on disrupting my life with the mess you’ve made of yours most definitely does.”

Wild lmao

No one says my name like he does, like every syllable is unique, special. Its own incantation in a book of ancient magic.

“No,” he says finally. “I try not to spend any time with her at all. Most days I’m successful since we live in separate houses and lead separate lives.”

“Truth or dare, princess?” “Truth.” “Do you want to come up to my room with me?” “Yes.”

Get yo mannnn back sis

“She wanted you to love her.” “Yes.” “And after all that time, you never did?” “No.” Because I love you. Because I’ve only ever loved you. I don’t need to say it to know that she understands.

She pulls in a steadying breath.“I need you to know that I don’t forgive you for what you did. I don’t forgive you for marrying her or breaking my heart, and it doesn’t matter that we’re about to do whatever it is we’re about to do, I won’t ever forgive you.”

“Then stop looking and start touching me. I want to come in your mouth.”

The way I slide up the mattress, running from deep strokes that kiss my cervix, and he chases me. I’ve always loved being chased by him.

“Because from the second I found out Eric was gone, all I wanted to do was hold you long enough to absorb your grief. To take every ounce of the pain you’ve been holding and carry it for you. When I boarded that plane, I knew I had no right to want any of those things, to want anything from you, but I want this, princess. I want to be here for you. Will you let me?”

Just the thought of the things we did on my freshly built bed frame makes my pussy clench deliciously, and I have to physically shake myself to get my brain back on track.

But Chris has always been mine, and nothing, not time, heartache, or his marriage, has changed that. This thing we’re doing, it’s reckless and maybe on some level, it’s wrong, but it is the only thing that feels right to me right now.

Periodt

“You heard me, princess. I haven’t slept with Giselle since high school. I haven’t been with anyone since the last time I was with you.”

Gurllll nahhhh

Chris is one of the few people in the world that I can do this with. Simply exist. No expectations for conversation or demands for attention.

“If I run are you going to chase me?” “I’d chase you to the ends of this Earth, Mallory.”

“You taste good, don’t you, baby? Now you know why I want to spend the rest of my life on my knees with my face between your thighs.”

“There was a tape, Mallory.” A violent wave of nausea rolls through me as I make an intuitive leap. Filling in the space between the question that started this story and the statement that just landed at my feet.

Finally

“We won’t ever be done, princess. If we’re both here on this Earth, breathing, living, existing, then we are happening. Nothing is ever going to stop me from loving you.”

“Don’t come back. Move on with your life. Let me move on with mine.”

Mal please

I stare at him, the man I’m ninety-nine percent sure faked his wife’s death and locked her way for decades while her kids grew up without her, and decide that this is probably normal for him.

“You did all of this…” I shake my head, disbelief stealing my thoughts for a second. “You did all of this so you could get back at Oscar for uncovering your secret?”

“She died in 2012.” Five years ago. I don’t know how to feel or if I’m feeling anything at all. How do you grieve someone you already thought you lost?

Smh

I’d earned his favor by betraying our mother, and RJ had fallen out of grace by staying silent.

Omg

Let her go. Open my hands and release her heart, accepting that it will never be mine to hold again.

Omfg