Till Death Unites Us

Chapter 25

“I’m really sorry.” I say, closing the door behind us. “That was…uncalled for.” I shake my head, glaring at the stuffed toys again. Ace steps forward and wraps his arms around me so that my back is pressed against his chest. My anger diminishes, but only slightly. “Don’t apologize, Eternity. I knew what I was getting myself into.”

“Then why did you come?” I ask, my brows furrowing in confusion, the answer too scary for me to face. “After everything that you saw, and everything you found out about me. Why did you still stick around? Most guys would have ran for the hills by now.” “Eternity. Stop.” He turns me around to face him. “I told you. I am in, and I don’t care about all those things. All I care about is you.” His hands stroke my cheek, and I lean into his touch. “You’re worth it all, Eternity.” He says before he kisses me.

 I kiss back, melting into him, wrapping my arms around his neck and pulling him even closer to me. Three words resurface in my mind and I feel an overwhelming desire to give them voice, but saying them out loud scares the crap out of me. My fingers tangle in his hair, pulling at his soft locks and eliciting a moan from him. I grin as he begins walking us backwards towards the bed; my knees hit the edge and we fall into the mattress with him on top of me, trailing kisses down my collar bone, making me let out a satisfied sigh. Feeling bold, my hand reaches out and start unbuttoning his shirt. I don’t push it off his shoulders, instead running my hands over his abs. He shivers, his hand coming to stop mine as he smirks down at me, “You keep doing this, sweetheart, and I won’t be able to hold back.” I smirk back, “Maybe I don’t want you to hold back,” His eyes darken and he groans, burying his face in my hair, “God, Eternity, you can’t just go on saying things like that to a guy,”

I giggle, “You’re such a guy sometimes,”

“Or maybe you’re just irresistible,” He wiggles his eyebrows at me, and I blush.

 So much for being bold, Eternity.

I bite my lip, studying every feature of his face, “Hey, I didn’t know about your sister,” He looks down quickly, but I catch the sadness that crosses his face, “It was a really long time ago,”

“Was that it?”

“Was what?”

I take a deep breath, “Was that the darkness you talked about?” I feel him stiffen beside me, and he looks up at me, his eyes getting a lost look in them.

“No.” He chokes out, and I swear he almost looked like he was going to say ‘yes’. He shrugs, gaining more composure, “I guess it was a culmination of everything—I mean you don’t get a comatose mother and not have that affect you.”

 I hold my hands up, “Hey, you’re the one who came up with the whole near-death thing.” I lean closer to him, “Ace, what are you not telling me? Really, after everything you’ve found out about me, you think I’d care? Or scare away?”

“It doesn’t change anything, Eternity.” He whispers. “It’s not something I’m proud of, sweetheart.”

“No, it doesn’t. But this is about me wanting to know you, all of you.” My hand covers his, intertwining his fingers with his like he always does with mine. “Ace, I know you’re a good guy. Nothing is gonna change what I think about you. Ace, you need to be able to talk about those things to me.” Why does he look like he’s seconds away from having a panic attack? “Can you please just trust me on this one? Please, Eternity, you’ve trusted me so far, trust me that this is something you’re better off not knowing. It’s a big mess that I don’t want you involved in.”

“Is this about your dad?” He winces, “I’m not proud of my past, Eternity. Trust me, you’re safer not knowing.” His eyes are pleading and I hold his gaze for a while before sighing, “Fine, but you have to promise me the truth about everything else.”

 He nods, “I already do that.” He leans in and kisses my forehead, “I probably should go before your parents kick me out,” I chuckle but don’t quite smile, and he notices it. “Eternity, you know I would never hurt you, don’t you?” I nod and he kisses me before grabbing his jacket. He leaves through the fire escape, leaving me alone with my thoughts.

What the hell did he do?