“I can’t marry him like this,” Austin argued, her voice a slight whimper. “I’m so unprepared!”
“Yeah, he said you’d say that, so he wrote this for one last measure of leverage,” Tom said, reaching into the inside of his blazer pocket for something. Pulling out an envelope, he handed it over and took a step back. He watched as Austin took it with both hands, reading her name in Tyler’s handwriting before looking back up at him confused. “Read it,” he prompted her, giving her a gentle push.
Ripping the envelope open, she allowed it to drop as she held onto the letter and read it silently to herself. She felt her tears begin to liven up again, her vision blurring as she read each carefully thought out word.
Austin,
I thought second chances were for fools. Childish fools who believed miracles could happen. I wasn’t a dreamer. The moment I found you gone I believed in nothing. I strived to carry on, but I didn’t realize how empty my life was until you walked back into town. You set my mind spinning. You made me crazy, and in the end you made me realize that I was only actually crazy in love - with you.
I saw your face the moment I walked into the house tonight. You thought the past was on repeat. I hated seeing it. I won’t ever be that guy again. I would rather hang up my gun and hand in my badge than neglect you. When I said I was securing our happily ever after, I wasn’t lying. I believe we’re set for life now.
You’re one of the most beautifully courageous and strong women I know. I love how you give me that smile in the morning when you first look at me, and I love that kiss you give me before we fall asleep. You, Austin Pearson, are my favorite hello and hardest goodbye, and I want that for life.
I hope by making you an Armstrong at long last will show you that it’s always been you. Through it all, through everything that’s happened, my heart only knows how to love you. I believe that everything that has happened for a reason.
My life starts and ends with you. That is something that will keep me going for years.
It’s time we leave the chaos behind us, start our life together, and get ready for that family we’ve already created.
It’s time for our happily ever after to begin, Sunny.
I hope to see you in that dress and ready to be all mine. I don’t care about anything today. I just want to make you mine.
Ty x
With watery eyes, she looked to Tom and smiled brightly. “I think it’s time I got married.”
Tom’s entire face ignited with a smile and he put his hand out to her, “Come on, Sis. Dad’s waiting to walk you down the aisle to your man.”
Looking from brother to sister, she nodded before whispering, “Okay.”
She allowed her brother to walk her to the one thing her heart had yearned for years over. The moment she saw Tyler waiting for her down at the end of the red carpet across the lawn, their closest of friends and families rising to their feet for her, she knew this was right. This was how her life was supposed to turn out.
She was meant to love a man where she harbored no doubts, no qualms and had no worries about what he was actually doing. History would not repeat itself here, and if it did, she was strong enough to stop it.
Chapter Three
WATCHING Austin sleep, Tyler remembered the day he nearly screwed his life up again and laughed at himself. He was so much wiser now, aged by the past nine years in which Austin disappeared and came home to him. Hell, even in the last three years he had changed. Seeing her so despondent and ready to throw their meal away that night hit him hard. He vowed never to make the same mistake twice, and he hadn’t until that night. He had her thinking their life was set to just carry on in a vicious cycle.
That wasn’t the case, and the moment she had told him she was pregnant, he knew mistakes would not be repeated. He remembered when she had whispered those words so delicately into his ear, he nearly saw his past happening again. All of the truths lashed out at him, attacked him, burnt him. He remembered how she spoke about being home alone, and how she threw meals away until she just gave up cooking for him. He hated that he pushed her to that point again, and there was the same culprit behind it – Natasha.
She had tarnished them for so long that Tyler was finally happy to say that he had changed his ways. Natasha no longer cast a shadow over their relationship. The only thing he was happy about was the clear cut fact she was locked away and would remain that way for the rest of their lives.
He watched as Austin shifted a little in her sleep, mumbling incoherently at him over something or nothing all at once. He smiled and trailed his gaze down and over her burns. He saw how people stared at her in the beginning, how newcomers to the town stared, hell how people looked when they would go away and Austin was far from the comfort of home, but he was proud to see how she dealt with it. Tyler knew full well that Austin was self-conscious of her scars, but she didn’t always hide them. Most of the time, she carried on as if they weren’t even there, and he couldn’t believe how lucky he was to call such a woman his wife.
“Morning, Mr. Armstrong,” Austin spoke to him, her tone heavy with sleep and she curled up onto her side, unable to will herself awake. “You need to stop watching me sleep.”
He hadn’t even realized she was awake. Lost in thought he had missed her opening her eyes only to tease him. Tyler loved this sight first thing in the morning, Austin with her bed hair and husky tone from sleep. “Why would I do that?”
“Why do you do that?” she countered back at him, a smirk full of tease and exhaustion being shot back at him.
“Reminding myself how lucky I am,” Tyler told her and leaned in for his first kiss of the day.
As she accepted the tender kiss, she reached up to cup his face as he withdrew, and smiled as her rings caught the sunshine pouring in through the large bay window. The diamond in her engagement ring glistened and the simple wedding ring caught the light perfectly. It was one thing that could put a smile on her face on her absolute darkest days.
Austin Armstrong. The mere ring of each syllable sent shivers up Austin’s spine and created that wistful, dreamy smile that her husband always teased her for. She couldn’t stop herself when she remembered the battle that got them back to one another. Grief had torn them apart, but in its own way, grief had drawn them back to the one their heart wanted. However, no grief lay between them now. Their secrets were laid bare and the past was shared.
“You and I have duties,” she told him, wondering if he would catch on to what duties she was after. The normal routine could well wait for them.
Tyler grinned wildly at her, throwing the sheets up a little so he could climb on top of her, “I knew there was a reason you refused to wear panties last night to bed.” He leaned in, kissing the side of her neck, his hands running the course of her body, tantalizing inch by glorious inch. “I love our good mornings.”
“Mm hmm,” Austin replied as he kissed the delicate spot on her jaw line.
Just as he reached between her legs to arouse her more, his cell phone began to ring. “Fuck,” he muttered and pushed up to stare at it menacingly across the bed.
“Answer it,” Austin pushed him, knowing that if it was work then duty called and he needed to listen to his obligation of work. It was no longer an issue between them. Austin didn’t feel neglected or second best to his job. She saw more of Tyler than she could dream off, so letting him go to the call of duty didn’t worry her. She had no reason to second guess him.
Clambering off his wife, he reached for his cell and literally barked his hello down the line. He ran a hand across his forehead as he listened and quickly gave an affirmative to be there within the next thirty minutes. He sighed as he put the phone down. “There’s apparently something urgent that needs my attention,” Tyler spoke and scowled as he glanced at the clock on the bedside table. It was barely eight and already he was being called into work.
Austin got up from her position and sat beside him. She had no hard feelings right now. Seeing how much he hat
ed leaving her to go to work was enough to show how remorseful he was over the entire thing.
“Rain check?” Tyler asked apologetically, hating to have to leave them both so unfulfilled.
“Sure, baby,” Austin told him with such certainty she was prepared to hold off their normal morning welcome until he came home. However, she saw his eyes darken with a solemn gaze and she frowned. “You need to stop beating yourself up over the same thing, Ty.” She watched his face fall, his guard dropping. “You’ve never once neglected me or our family. You’ve never missed a moment since that day, stop acting like you’re going to mess this up.”
“I’m scared I will,” Tyler doubted for a moment. He had done it once, what was to say he wouldn’t do it again?
“You won’t,” Austin fought back at his insecurity. She really had no qualms over Tyler’s commitment to their life together. She just needed him to see that too.
He looked at her, soul searching her eyes for the right answers. “How do you know that?”
Austin gave him a soft smile. “Because I know you, Tyler, and you learn from your mistakes, you don’t repeat them. Plus, do you really think I’ll let you do that to me again without me being more vocal?”
“No,” he mumbled at her softly, a small smirk eliciting upon his lips.
“So go to work, and come home with some flowers or takeout,” Austin toyed with him playfully. “If that will make you feel better, but really, I have no problem with you shooting off to work.”
“When did I get such an amazing woman in my life?” he asked her, wondering what he had done to deserve her.
“She’s always been here,” Austin giggled and pushed him off of her. “Now go and shower.”
“Okay,” he told her, losing all of the angst from his aura. He stole a kiss before he climbed off her and stalked towards the en suite bathroom, deliberately dropping his pajama pants to the floor so her last sight right now was his stark naked behind.
Smiling, Austin lay there and mused about her life. Hearing the shower start, Austin decided to get out of bed. She needed to be ready for her little whirlwind to run riot throughout her day. Going over to the mirror, she pulled her nightie off and held it by her side before allowing it to drop; the flimsy material pooling on the floor. She was going to get changed, but she just wanted to look at what was left of heartbreak and lies.
Running her hand up her arm, Austin felt the contours of her burn scars and remembered all the events that happened around that one dire moment of life and death. When so much bad led up to the point where she was trapped in that inferno, Austin had wondered if everything would ever be the same, and it wasn’t. Life was never the same after that moment. Austin found clarity and peace and even the scars didn’t hover over her life like a massive dark cloud. It showed her that Tyler loved her, that he would stick by her and that, no matter what, he would never leave her to suffer alone like he had once before.
Plus, it meant that she could be reminded that at the end of it all, Tyler was her hero.
“You look too thoughtful,” Tyler said as he appeared behind her in the reflection. “It’s always a beautiful look on you. The naked look is a good one too.”
Austin smiled meekly at that, feeling the heat of a blush score across her cheeks. “I was just remembering that day.”
“Mid getting dressed?” he asked her sarcastically, a grin on his lips. “You know it made us what we are today.” He watched her nod at him and she spun on her spot to look at him and bit her lip. “I know you thought I was repeating an old pattern, but I refused to get carried away. That day when I came in to see you throwing that meal in the trashcan, my heart stopped, Aussie. I was a bastard to you and I knew I had to make you see that I am not the man I was when I was career driven and blind.”
“Stop,” she breathed out, making him pause. “You and I live in the past too much. We need to live in the here and now, and the rest of tomorrows we’ve got planned. I mean we made it. Three years now we have been happily married. We need to stop this reverting to the past to make better decisions. We’re truly capable.”
“Well then, if that’s the case,” Tyler said as he approached her, with a look full of intent. “I better show you that I am a totally different man.”
Austin bit down harder on her bottom lip as her husband dropped his towel and she felt the lust bubble from within her causing an instant arousal. “Oh no,” she smirked, allowing her eyes to roll down his body, running laps over the defined abs and then onto his main member as it stood erect and ready. “You’re definitely the same man,” Austin continued to tell him, her eyes reverting back to his with a look of swift seduction. “Now, how about you show me just how silly me remembering that day is.”
Tyler looked at her with a look of impression, not toying with the idea for more than necessary. “Sounds like an amazing plan.” He pulled her to the bed, pushing her upon the soft mattress before he gave her a daring look of dominating prowess.
As much as Austin wanted to heed to the moment, she remembered that Tyler had received a call asking him to get to work. She pouted as she tried to end the moment. She had a lifetime of mornings and a forever worth of evenings to sleep with him. “You need to get ready,” Austin tried to push him away to his real obligations, but she couldn’t deny how needy her body was feeling right now and she really didn’t want to be left feeling this insatiable all day.
“I won’t be able to fit in my morning workout, so this will class as that,” he said, slowly pinning her to the mattress. “What’s a few minutes extra?”
With that said, she didn’t argue with him. She admitted submission and as his lips touched hers she worked the kiss, allowing his tongue access into her mouth as he deepened the moment. As he pulled away she felt him penetrate her quickly, burying himself deeply into her.
Running her hands over his ribcage to claw at his back, Austin felt the gentle rhythm Tyler started with gain momentum, turning into a heated sexual rampage to race her to an orgasmic height. She curved her back at the rush of blissful rapture that fulfilled her, and her head push back in the impending ecstasy. Between his thrusts and kisses, Tyler worked his wife into oblivion until he felt her walls begin to lose control around him.
“Ty,” Austin managed to whimper as the orgasmic rapture clinched its delicious fingers around her and lulled her into blissful oblivion. She felt herself fall, her breathing hitching in delicious staccato breaks until she felt her husband come within her and she knew they were both sated with one another.
For just over three years they had shared a bed, made a life together, ensured their happily ever after was unbreakable, and yet their intimacy never dwindled. It remained renewed and utter perfection every single time.
“I really love you, Tyler,” Austin murmured as she looked up at him, her chest breathing through the sexual exertion they had just brought the morning in with. “Nothing will change that.”
“I love you too,” he said and leaned in to kiss her. The moment his lips connected with hers again, he felt the need to keep her in bed with him all day and just not care about the outside world. He lifted away from her, his eyes dancing with her gaze, his arousal remaining steady and strong. “Round two?”
“Mommy!” Came their daughter’s cries. “Daddy!”
“I think we need to delay round two.” Austin looked to her husband, giggling as she did so, and smiled brightly. Who cared about being disrupted by the most beautiful sound ever?
Agreeing, he kissed her again. “And the good life begins again,” Tyler said, kissing his wife and letting her escape from his grasp. Sitting for a moment after Austin had dressed and left the room, he counted his lucky stars all over again.
Chapter Four
“YOU pulled me away from a beautiful woman, so this better be good,” Tyler shouted as he walked into the police department, all guns blazing, the frown instilled on his forehead.
“Aw, I’m sure Austin won’t mind you being top cop for an hour or two,
” Steve chided playfully as he relaxed back at his desk.
“I hope it’s not an hour or two,” Tyler smirked at his reasoning behind it. “I got my best girls waiting at home for me.”
“You’ve always got your best girls waiting at home for you,” Steve quipped sarcastically, trying to play the jealous man, but he couldn’t be that. No one could be bitter over seeing Austin reunited with Tyler, they could be envious all they wanted, but no bitterness was felt towards them.
“Exactly, and I’d like to keep it that way,” Tyler spoke back, knowing he’d go through hell for his daughter and wife. “So, what’s so important I needed to be here almost an hour before scheduled?”
Steve’s face darkened a little. “We all received these this morning.”
Tyler didn’t push, he just watched Steve twist on his seat, reaching across to grab a pile of letters. They were all the same brown manila envelopes, identical in size, identical in handwriting. The moment Tyler collected them in his grasp, he felt his blood boil. For over three years he hadn’t had any real issue with the past, yet lately it seemed to be all he had to deal with. Sure, Natasha rang the house, sent a letter on Tyler’s birthday, but she had never gotten this bad.
Looking at the envelope that had his name on it, Tyler literally ripped into it, his breathing stalled for a moment. His eyes ran around the imprinted words on the paper. He knew the writing all too well. It was the script work of a woman he used to love. Now, she was constant source of heartache.
Tyler,
I know all about your life now. Congratulations on Grace, and congratulations on your soon to be over marriage. You know you can’t stay with her. She’s not perfect anymore, you deserve perfection. The sooner you open your eyes to that and cut yourself from the one thing that will ruin you, the sooner you can live your life to the maximum.
Watch What Burns Page 3