Thorneless (Rose of Thorne Series) (8 page)

About twenty minutes later, he is turning onto an old gravel road that leads to a large pasture.
 He parks the truck and turns off the engine before climbing out and walking into the field alone.  He crosses his strong arms in front of his body and looks up to the star filled sky above him.  Moments later, I see his broad back begin shaking and realization hits me hard.  He’s crying.  My strong, fun filled adventuresome Lucas Drake is now crying, and it’s all because of me.

O
pening my door, I climb out of the truck and make my way to him.  I stand behind him and wrap my hands around his body.  It comforts me to be near him. We stand like this for a few minutes and I can tell his breathing is slowly returning back to normal.

“You say I treat you li
ke glass.  Maybe that’s true, but it isn’t because of the reason you think.  Glass breaks, but it also cuts.  Maybe I treat you that way because I’m afraid of being hurt again.  As much as you think you’re broken Skylar, so much of you remains unbreakable.  You think you know me, but you really don’t.   If you did, you’d see what’s right in front of you,” he says before he turns and faces me. The night wind blows my long hair astray and he lifts my face up to look at him.

“You’d see just how much I love you.
 Look, Skylar!  Look into my eyes.  I love you! I have always loved you! I’ll always love you!  You’re enough for me just the way you are. You’re all I’ve ever wanted and all I’ll ever need.” With trembling lips he drags his mouth across mine and I taste the perfect sweet blend of our tears.  He wraps his arms around me and I close my eyes to savor this.

“I’m so sorry
, Lucas.  I’m so sorry!” I repeat over and over into his chest. And just like that, the dam that has held back all the pain for all of these months breaks, flooding me with everything all at once.  The tears that I can normally shut off now won’t stop coming. The pain won’t stop stabbing though my body.  I just stand there gripping his shirt and crying like I’ve never cried before in my life.

“That’s it, baby.
 Let it all out.  Let it all go! Let the past go. I’m here now. I’ll always be right here. “

Lucas

I hated this moment, but I’ll treasure it for as long as I live.  It’s the moment that finally broke her, but also brought her back to me.  All the pain she’d been holding inside now flows down her face and soaks my shirt.  My heart is breaking for her—my heart is healing for her.  I’ve been waiting for all these long months for this moment.  I won’t let her go.  I’ll never let go again.  

I spread the sleeping bag out in the back of the truck bed and lift her up.
 We lay back and look up at the stars that sparkle like the rarest of diamonds above us.  She hasn’t spoken since she stopped crying. For a whole hour she cried against me.  She was weak and trembling, so I decided we’d lie back and look at the stars for a while.  Skylar lays her head across my chest and I lightly play with her soft, long hair.  I watch as a shooting star darts across the night sky. I close my eyes.  I make my wish.  

Sometimes wishes take a long time to come true and then ag
ain, sometimes they never do…but not tonight.  Immediately, my wish is granted from the sweetest words I could ever imagine coming from her mouth.

“Teach me to love,
 Lucas.  Please, teach me to love again.”  
              

I love you
, my angel.  You will love again.

Hugging
her closer to me, we both fall asleep holding each other under the glittering sky that brought us together tonight.

Sebastian

I hated coming back home to Austin, but sometimes I had no other choice when it came to taking care of my company’s business.  I’ve spent the past months as far away from this town as humanly possible.  Just like Skylar, I ran when I had the chance and have not looked back.

My life is a fucking joke.
 All I do is work from hotel suites as I travel abroad on business.  Women throw themselves at me everywhere I go and I refuse them at every whim.  Sure, it would be easy to go back to using them to forget her, but that’ll never happen. I will never forget her.  Every part of me belongs to her and that will remain the same until the day I die.  

I carry her ring around everywhere I go.
 Some part of me fantasizes that I’ll bump into her and we can go back to the way things were . . . to the way they’re supposed to be.  We should be happily married as husband and wife now.  I should be talking her into having the houseful of babies that she joked so much about having.  

I take a deep breath and enter my penthouse apartment. Slowly, I turn on the light and look around the open space.
 She’s still everywhere I turn.  I haven’t even allowed the housekeeper in here since she left.  I can’t risk for her touch to be removed from any surface here.  I pick up her blanket off the couch and inhale.  Her fragrance is still there, but is so faint now, that I have to inhale several times to catch a hint of it.  I collapse into the soft cushions and stare over at her smiling picture next to me.

Oh baby, please come back to me. I can’t live without you.

Lucas

We’ve been in Austin for almost a week now and I’ve watched her heal more and more every day.  Kylie stopped by this morning at my place to visit her and take her out to lunch.  She doesn’t go out much for fear that she’ll see Sebastian. Honestly, I want her to see him.  I want her to realize that she doesn’t need him.  I want her to come back into my arms and know that I’ll love her forever. I want her to choose me. I still don’t know what it is that he had done to her, but I want her to understand that I’ll never hurt her like he had. Never.

This past week has not been easy for me.  Living with her right down the hall from me is a torturous heaven. Seeing her in my home is something I can never grow tired of.  I want her here with me always.  

There were many nights that I’d fall asleep just holding her.
 Nightmares of her past still occasionally haunt her sleep and I’d awaken to her screaming.  It’s pure hell lying next to someone you want more than life itself, and knowing that they aren’t ready for that yet.

Sometimes I kiss away her tears.
 And often, our kissing becomes too heated, and I have to pull myself together in order to not do something that I’ll later regret doing.  Right now, this is about so much more than sex.  This is about loving her through all of the pain of her past.  This is about one day having my beautiful angel loving me back. This is about a forever love.  

Skylar

As Kylie and I walk into the downtown restaurant, I can’t help but look over my shoulder.  Everywhere I go, I’m in panic of seeing Sebastian.  It’s like he’s nowhere yet everywhere all at the same time.  

“Will you calm down?
I told you that Nik said that Sebastian isn’t even in town.  He rarely flies back in on business here and when he does, he never even lets Nik know until he’s already gone,” Kylie tries to calm me.

“I know, I know. You’re right,” I say and she smiles back at me. I love m
y best friend so much, even though she gloats when she’s right. She talks and talks more about Nik.  Love seeps from her pores in every word about him and I’m so happy to see her this way. She deserves it so much, especially after fighting to care about someone for so long.  Maybe I need to take my own words to heart.

After an hour
and a half long lunch that involved splitting two desserts, we’re giggling like teenagers again.
Gosh, how I’ve missed this.

I listen
to all kinds of graphic knowledge that my friend reveals.  She doesn’t hold
anything
back when she talks about the new love in her life, and by “anything,” I think you know what I am referring to. “ . . . and Nik can do the most FUCKING A-M-A-Z-I-N-G things with his tongue babe. I swear the man is making me wet my panties here just thinking about him,” Kylie says a little too loudly when our waiter returns with our refills, causing him to almost spill them on the table.

“You are shameless
, girl!” I say giggling as the waiter darts away.

“You don’t know just how shameless I am
, babe!  Nik and I . . . ” I cut her off before she continues.

“Girl! My ears can’t take hearing any more about you two and your sexcapades.”

“Oh, shut it!  Like you and Mr. Drake haven’t been burning up the sheets.”

My face remains serious and I shake my head.
 I watch her mouth drop open. Did I mention that I love to shock the hell out of my best friend?

“You mean to tell me that you two have bee
n around each other for almost five months now and haven’t fucked yet?” She asks, again too loudly, and the table of ladies next to us gapes over in our direction.  I shake my head at my friend and ignore the looks they’re still giving us.

“No, Kyles.
 We haven’t. Lucas and I are not that way.  Not yet anyway,” I add.

“Uh . . . and why the hell not?”

“He doesn’t think I’m ready yet.  He’s right. I’m still not ready for something like that.”

“Not ready for sex? Oh give me a break!
 That vagina of yours needs some major attention and no man can resist a willing vagina for that long,” she says, again just in time for the waiter to hear as he takes our plates away.

“You’re going to get us banned from here, you know?” I tease her and she tosses her long hair back and laughs.
 

“Psssh! Like Ni
k would ever let that happen!” She says and I smile.  
Yes, love looks good on my friend.  Damn good.

Just as we’re leaving, Kylie remembers that she left her phone on the table. I stay and wait for the attendant to bring Kylie’s new Camaro around to the front. Seems Nikolas loves his lady a lot and wants her to ride around in style.

Just as the attendant stops the car, I feel it. The air crackles with such a charge, I literally gasp for my lost breath.  No. No. I challenge myself to look ahead and when I do I lock eyes with the one person I had feared seeing more than anything.  Sebastian. I fight like hell to look away, but I can’t. I want to run to him. I want to feel him against me.  He looks horrible and delicious at the same time.  A small smile grows on one side of his mouth, and hope fills his sad eyes.  What am I doing
?
The inner voice inside me screams at me,
“He destroyed your life
—
don’t you remember?”

Kylie returns just as I’m turning to run back in the restaurant and I smack right into her, nearly knocking her over in the process. She steadies me and her eyes immediately become wide with concern.

“What the hell? Sky? What’s wrong?” She asks and I hold onto her trying to catch the breath that seeing him knocked out of me.  
Oh God! I can’t breathe!

“Sebastian . . . I just saw
—” I gasp and then darkness finds me.

Sebastian

Everywhere I go, I see her. Skylar’s face is in every crowd. I even see her in my sleep.  Now, I welcome the nightmares that had haunted me for years. At least in my dreams, I can steal a glimpse of her, even if it’s only for a brief moment. I’ve come accustomed to imagining her, but this time it isn’t my imagination. This time she’s real.

I had felt her immediately as I walked out of the restaurant from my business lunch.
 That bolt of energy literally zapped me backwards. When I see her, she knocks the breath out of my chest.  I’m too afraid to move and even more afraid to blink
.  What if she’s a dream?  What if it really isn’t her after all?

She turns and looks up. I know she feels our connection. I know she’s being drawn to look up to me. When our eyes lock, everything in me seems to come life again.
 My heart finally feels like it’s beating. I can feel the life returning in my soul.  My lips turn up into a hesitant smile and then she turns and bolts back toward the restaurant.  I see Kylie talking to her and then I see Skylar drop to the ground.

Immediately I step forward and cross the busy street to get to her.

“Skylar! Someone call an ambulance!  Skylar!” Kylie yells as I kneel down desperately to be near her.

“What happened? Skylar! Wake up baby!
“ I beg as I continue calling her name. Kylie blocks my view of her and gives me a hateful look.

“This is all your fault, you fucking bastard. Get the fuck away from h
er before I call the police!”  She yells but I refuse to move until I know she’s okay.

“Come on
, girl, wake up!” She yells and I can see Skylar start to come around.  
Thank heavens!

“Kylie?” Skylar moans and I stand. “It can’t be him. It hurts,” she continues and I look down at her.

“Where do you hurt babe?” Kylie asks her.

“My heart . . . it’s broken,” she manages to say and I feel the words stab into me.
 I look at an enraged Kylie and then I stand up.  I put one foot in front of the other and I walk away.  She is terrified of me. She hates me.  She’ll never forgive me.  I’m the darkness that fills her soul.

But even darkness craves the light.
 I will forever crave her.

Somehow . . . someway, I’ll step out of the darkness and into her light again.