Hate Me or Love Me
Page 53
He pulls away with a stunned look.
My eyes drift behind him to Abri, who looks like she’s going to punch someone or throw up.
Knight turns to her. “I love you, Abri. She took me by surprise. I think she thinks I’m someone else. She’s on a lot of painkillers.”
Abri looks at me, and a gracious smile covers her face as she turns back to Knight. They walk toward each other, meeting in the middle. He kisses her with a passion I wish he would kiss me with. Their kiss kicks my kiss’ ass.
Their kiss is between two people who love each other.
Maybe I was wrong. Maybe Abri truly loves Knight if she’s willing to look past a mistake like this so easily.
They are a perfect couple. They have what I want.
And my life is in shambles. My family will blame me for tonight, and they will be right.
I need to tell someone about Nasser.
I need to tell Knight what I know so he can make the best decision about Abri.
I need to…turn all the pain off.
I close my eyes and shut off the world.
I shut off Nasser. I shut out my parents’ corpses. I shut out Ren, Henry, and Abri. And I force Knight’s kiss from my lips. This night didn’t happen. I will not remember.
Present
* * *
“That night was my fault,” I whisper.
“No, it was Nasser’s fault. You never pressed charges against him?”
I shake my head. “Until recently, I didn’t even remember the details of what happened. Only the newspaper clippings and stories my siblings told me.”
Knight kisses my cheek as we sit in my car. “You shouldn’t have kissed me that night.”
I look at him with sadness. “You shouldn’t have kissed me and gotten me fired, either.”
“I thought you would remember you tried to save me with a kiss.”
I smile. “I couldn’t remember you without remembering the pain.”
He kisses my lips again gently.
“Both of those kisses were so perfect, yet so destructive,” I whisper against his lips.
We kiss again.
“If I had felt anything less than love for Abri, I would have been mesmerized with you after that kiss.”
“And if I hadn’t lost my scholarship and ability to finish school after your kiss, I would have fallen for you then.”
Another kiss unites us, each of us promising we will let nothing come between us.
“How could I forget you?” I whisper.
“Because you had to survive the pain and guilt. It wasn’t your fault.”
I nod. It will take me a while for the guilt of what happened to vanish completely. And the pain of everything I lost that night will only ease with time. But in the meantime, we have each other.
We get out of the car in Cole’s parking lot.
“You realize neither of us has any money or a job now,” Knight says.
“Speak for yourself, I have two hundred dollars in my bank account, and a job as Cole’s assistant.”
Knight laughs. “That’s more than I have.”
I pull him to me. “I would live on the streets with you if it means I get to have you.”
He smirks. “I don’t think I would survive sleeping on the ground. I’m a bit of a germaphobe.”
I laugh. “You’re right. You wouldn’t survive.”
“I guess we will be living with Cole then.”
“You get to be the one to tell him.”
He kisses me. “I think you should tell him. He’ll punch me in the face. He owes me a few punches.”
I smile. “Fine, I’ll tell him.”
We kiss again, and I know we won’t be able to stop kissing for the rest of the night.
“Our relationship won’t exactly be perfect then, will it?”
“Perfect is overrated.”
I smile. “Kiss me and make me forget.”
I fell in love with Knight with one kiss, and with one kiss I brought him from the brink of despair.
“No, I’ll kiss you, so you never have to forget again.”
Epilogue
Knight
“Hey, Knight?” Mila shouts from the couch of our living room.
Why she’s shouting, I don’t know. I’m cooking in the kitchen three feet away from her. The apartment we occupy is tiny. Less than five hundred square feet. But it’s ours.
“Yes, baby?” I stir the marinara sauce.
“How accurate were the results at Perfect Match?”
I raise an eyebrow as I glance her way. “You would know better than me.”
“You had a hundred percent guarantee. And when you matched couples, you had less than five percent report incompatibility after they started dating.”
“Then I guess we were pretty good.”
She frowns.
“What’s wrong?”
“I just filled out both of our profiles, and it says we are incompatible. That we shouldn’t be together. Do you think Abri knows it was me filling out the questionnaires and rigged it just to mess with us?”
I laugh and turn off the burners before walking over to Mila on the couch. I stand behind her, rubbing her shoulders gently that have tensed from reading the results.
“We are incompatible, huh?” I ask, ignoring the part about Abri. Neither of us brings her up often, but last time I checked, she had grown the company by ten percent and was dating a finance guy from Manhattan. She seems to be doing just fine.
“Yes,” she groans.
I lean down and kiss the top of her head, then trail my kisses down to her ear.
“What do you think now? Are we still incompatible?”
She nods. “Yes.”
“Hmm.” I move my lips to her neck, sucking her sweet skin.
She moans.
“What about now?”
“Still incompatible.”
The top of her scrubs gives me a fantastic view of her chest. I let my hand gently glide down her chest until I squeeze her breasts, letting my thumb trace over her nipple.
“And now?”
“Mmmhhh, still incomp—”
My lips land on her mouth as I tilt her head to me. Her tongue sweeps into my mouth and then I’m gone. I forget about making dinner. It will have to wait. I can feel her desperation and mild heartbreak, and I won’t ever let her feel that way again.
I climb over the couch, so I don’t have to end the kiss and kneel in front of her feet. With one last kiss, I pull her pants and underwear down, burying my face between her legs.
“Yes!” she cries at my touch.
“Yes, we are compatible?”
She pants. “Ahh, almost.”
I laugh and then drape her legs over my shoulders as I go to work on making her feel like mine. I should have had her the second she got off her twenty-four-hour shift.
My tongue licks, finding her clit with ease as I trace circles just the way she likes. I slip a finger into her tight cunt, and within moments, I feel her clenching around me.
“What about now?” I smile against her leg before kissing her inner thigh.
“I think we are perfect for each other.”
“Good, now get dressed before dinner gets cold.”
She pouts.
I laugh. “I’ll fuck you more after dinner.”
“Or you could fuck me while eating dinner.”
My eyes darken. “Dammit, I love you.”
Two hours later we are fucked, our tummies full, and we’ve showered and changed.
“Where are we going?”
“To one of my favorite places.”
She climbs onto the back of my motorcycle without any more questions. Today is the anniversary of her parents’ deaths. The anniversary of when we first met. Most of the day she’s been distracted with work, but now she’s mine.
I drive quickly away from our tiny apartment to our destination, loving how her hands feel wrapped around my waist. I could spend the whole night driving, but then I wo
uldn’t know what is going through her head. I wouldn’t be able to see if she’s having nightmares or dozing peacefully behind me. And I can’t stand not being able to save her from any pain if I can.
So I pull up in front of the tattoo parlor, and Mila takes my hand as we get out.
“We are getting tattoos?” she asks.
“Yes, I thought what perfect way to mark you as mine?”
“I love that idea.”
“That is if you can afford it, my sugar momma.”
She laughs. “I’m not your sugar momma.”
“You make all the money saving people’s lives at the ER. You pay all our bills. That’s the definition of a sugar momma.”
She rolls her eyes. “You just got investors to invest over five million dollars in your latest app idea. I don’t think I will be paying for anything for long.”
I kiss her hard. “I won’t see any of the money in my pocket for years. In the meantime, I’m in your debt.”
She kisses me back before running into the parlor.
I chase after her.
“What tattoo do you want to get?” Mila asks as she looks at various designs in the office.
“I want your name, here,” I say, pointing to ring finger of my left hand.
She gasps.
“What tattoo do you want?” I ask.
“A dragon.”
I raise an eyebrow. “Really? Where? I think that tattoo will take more than one night.”
She laughs. “Kidding. I want your name here.” She points to her own ring finger.
We’ve talked several times about it. Marriage may or may not be in our futures. It’s not something that is important to either of us right now. But I want her to know she’s mine, and I’m hers. This is the way to show it.
We both take a seat in chairs next to each other as the artists begin needling the ink into our skin.
I’ve already gotten one tattoo since I met Mila. A cracked heart around Abri’s name. Mila wouldn’t let me erase her or mark over her, but she agreed to let me have a broken heart.
Mila’s phone buzzes and I glance over just catching Ren’s name as Mila silences her phone. Mila is meeting her siblings tomorrow for brunch. Things haven’t completely healed between them yet, but they are all working on mending their relationships with a lot of therapy sessions and brunch meetings. Something about how none of them can yell if they are eating brunch.
“What’s going through your head, pretty girl? What’s your plan for the rest of our lives?”
She smiles as she thinks for a moment. “I don’t have one. I had a plan for a perfect life to replace my horrible life, but I found you instead.”
I laugh at her jab against me.
“You sure you don’t have our entire life planned out yet?”
She smirks. “I guess you’ll have to wait and see.”
The End
* * *
Thank you so much for reading Finding Perfect!
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Also by Ella Miles
SINFUL TRUTHS:
Sinful Truth #1
Twisted Vow #2
Reckless Fall #3
Tangled Promise #4
Fallen Love #5
Broken Anchor #6
TRUTH OR LIES:
Taken by Lies #1
Betrayed by Truths #2
Trapped by Lies #3
Stolen by Truths #4
Possessed by Lies #5
Consumed by Truths #6
DIRTY SERIES:
Dirty Beginning
Dirty Obsession
Dirty Addiction
Dirty Revenge
Dirty: The Complete Series
ALIGNED SERIES:
Aligned: Volume 1 (Free Series Starter)
Aligned: Volume 2
Aligned: Volume 3
Aligned: Volume 4
Aligned: The Complete Series Boxset
UNFORGIVABLE SERIES:
Heart of a Thief
Heart of a Liar
Heart of a Prick
Unforgivable: The Complete Series Boxset
MAYBE, DEFINITELY SERIES:
Maybe Yes
Maybe Never
Maybe Always
* * *
Definitely Yes
Definitely No
Definitely Forever
STANDALONES:
Pretend I’m Yours
Finding Perfect
Savage Love
Too Much
Not Sorry
About the Author
Ella Miles writes steamy romance, including everything from dark suspense romance that will leave you on the edge of your seat to contemporary romance that will leave you laughing out loud or crying. Most importantly, she wants you to feel everything her characters feel as you read.
Ella is currently living her own happily ever after near the Rocky Mountains with her high school sweetheart husband. Her heart is also taken by her goofy five year old black lab who is scared of everything, including her own shadow.
Ella is a USA Today Bestselling Author & Top 50 Bestselling Author.
Stalk Ella at:
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