Undeniably Yours (Bass Cole) (Torn Series) Read online

  “You’re such a worry wart. Should I be worried? I think we got our roles reversed here.” She laughed, clasping my hand with hers as we started to walk towards the other side of the island.

  It was a decently sized, deserted place that Aspasia owners used for their lemon orchard. The scent alone was intoxicating, couple that with new memories to be made with Emma and I was a happy camper.

  A regular July summer was scorching and today was no different, but the trees and the soft breeze made it bearable and less stifling.

  Guiding Emma towards rows and rows of lemon trees, the citrusy smell gave a light and cheery ambiance as we weaved around to get to the ruined theatre.

  One of the men named Nikos told me a story about a young man declaring his love for his woman, here on this very island, in this very theatre.

  Their said their love lasted until their last breath. When the man died of old age, the wife followed three weeks after, dying of heartbreak.

  Now, I wasn’t really into stories like these, but since I needed all the mojo to tell her about my feelings, it simply pushed me to do us both a favor and end my agony.

  I didn’t think there was another hardship other than falling in love itself, but Christ, how wrong was I? I hadn’t expected how difficult it was to tell the woman I had spent most summer days and nights with that I was hopelessly in love with her.

  There were a lot of instances where I could’ve easily blurted out those three words, yet each and every time, something held me back.

  His name always surfaced. Carter.

  It could possibly be because I was scared to know if she was still in love with him because, if she still was… I wasn’t sure how I could handle that at all. I mean, we had been mostly inseparable. We had shared everything—from meals to showers—and to imagine her still loving another man while she was with me would seriously eviscerate me, inside and out.

  What I felt for her was the real deal. As scary as the thought of it was to me, there was no way other than forward; heartbreak or not. So I had to man up and face the consequences of falling for a woman who might love me.

  Emma was worth the risk.

  I hoped to God that she was also worth the pain, if this went sour.

  When we reached our destination, most of my worries ebbed away and I was like a child on a Christmas morning. The sight of the ruins brought out my fondness and avid curiosity about history, different cultures and art. Descending down the stairs until I reached the time-weathered stage, I was transported to the books I had read about the Mesopotamia, Greek and Roman theatres. One of these days, I was going to drag Dimitris out to explore these Greek ruins with me. The man had become a dear friend after a month of being around each other. The Greek was actually a decent man, a lot like me in many aspects, which surprised me a great deal.

  What I liked most was the fact that he offered an apology the moment he found out about my involvement with Emma. Now, who wouldn’t respect another man who wasn’t afraid to apologize and man up about things such as that? We men had codes. Even though he didn’t know about Emma and me in the beginning, it was always a given to say something to the guy she was involved with; that was, if you were a respectable kind of guy.

  Walking a few steps, I stopped around the collapsed tip of the theater, staring after Emma who was busy doing her own thing atop the steps. “Amazing how acting started out like this. Crazy how it’s evolved, isn’t it?” My voice echoed around us, as if in a tunnel, leaving deafening echoes as it travelled through the air.

  “It is,” she replied, distracted as she started to check out an area of crumbling stones.

  Silently, I watched her a moment, knowing that this was the instant I had been waiting for.

  Huffing out a breath, I bit the bullet.

  “Emma,” I bellowed.

  Her face contorted as she spun around, facing me. “What?”

  “I’m so fucking, knee-deep, obsessively and passionately, crucial about forever in love with you.”

  Her frown deepened, confused, “WHAT? I can’t hear you!” she yelled back with a hand over her mouth.

  Damn. What a total, epic fail.

  Licking my lips, I tried again, prepping my lungs to try it even more loudly than the last time. “I said, I’m falling in love with you!”

  She still looked lost. “WHAT? You’re appallingly ugly to be with me?” She even gave a quick shake to her head. “That’s okay. I know I’m too hot to handle!”

  She then had the audacity to laugh, heavy bellied laughs.

  This whole time she had been fucking with me. And she thought she could easily get away with that? Not in this lifetime, you won’t. “Emma!” I growled, running in a flash, taking the stoned steps two at a time so I could catch the witch, but she was running away from me quickly, laughing at my embarrassment.

  She was running and laughing past the lined trees, knowing quite well I could easily catch up to her any second now. Just when the picnic I’d situated came to view, I upped my speed and reached for the teal bikini top string, tugging it away, freeing those nice tits of hers. She was now running topless, shrieking along the way as she tried to cover her breasts with her arm, heading towards the picnic area.

  Right before she reached it, my hand tugged on the strings of her bikini bottom, now fully freeing her from any scrap of decency.

  I was smiling wickedly at her with my cellphone video rolling away, capturing this sweet memory in film.

  “Stop that! I’m naked!” She giggled as she flimsily tried to take the phone away from me.

  There was no way she was going to stop me from taking this video of her. Did she know that she looked like a breath of fresh air, smiling and looking at me with enough shyness and wickedness that it made my heart contract without effort? She was fucking perfect. For me, she truly was.

  “It’s just us here. Now, be nice and smile for the camera,” I commanded while pushing us towards the blanket until we were sitting on it. Still aiming the device at her, I continued with my pursuit of happiness. “Now say, Bass, I’m crazy about you.”

  Her eyes glittered, looking away before she bit her lips, blushing like a blooming bride in spring before she squarely looked into the camera. “I love you.”

  Everything around me deafened as my senses aimed solely at her, the woman who had stolen my heart.

  She loves me… I chanted over and over again in my mind before the words finally sunk in. I made a hungry, guttural sound then shoved the phone somewhere and took hold of her lips, kissing and laughing. “You’ve made me the happiest man on the planet,” I declared, leaving kisses all over her face. “I’m so relieved to let that off my chest. I thought I was going to suffocate with it. I couldn’t hold off any longer.”

  “I’m glad that’s out. I was going batty with it, too.” She barely got the words out before my lips devoured hers as I slowly reclined our bodies onto the blanket.

  I took a moment or a few to admire her, looking at her with love in both our eyes. I felt open—FREE—but most of all, I felt blessed and lucky to have found someone so special and in turn, one who also loved me back.

  “Beautiful,” I murmured, eyes roving over her.

  We made love. Kissed. Ate. Made love again. Swam. Then made love all over again.

  We had just finished mating like animals when Emma slowly slid off me. She rolled onto her back, exhausted, as I decided to whisper into her ear, “You look so beautifully wild and impassioned.”

  Gazing up at me with pure, unadulterated passion that made me ache all over, Emma sighed. “You’ve turned me into a sex fiend, Bass. Always aching and throbbing for you.”

  I smirked, cocky at my renowned skills. I studied my lover’s reaction to each touch and stroke. Attentive lover, I was, but most of all, when I owned a woman’s body, I fucked it like there was no tomorrow. “It throbs because I don’t give your cunt time to recover after orgasms. Usually, it takes a couple of days to heal, but I don’t give you that concession. I need
it wanting, throbbing and pulsing as it awaits my return.”

  Emma smacked the side of my head with her bikini top. “God, you’re so cocky. Don’t you ever get tired?”

  “Hey! Don’t condemn the person who only speaks the truth.” I was trying to hide a smile, but it was hard to do.

  She gave me a death glare. “Are you insinuating that my vagina is a Basswhore?”

  Oooh, I liked that nickname. A lot. Emma the Basswhore, more like it.

  “Only whore to me and no other man’s, Emma.” She was definitely my whore.

  Rolling her eyes at me, she tsk-tsked. “Yep, you are cocky, indeed.”

  The rest of the afternoon was spent enjoying each other’s company. I brought one of my favorite aged paperback collections and read her a poem from one of my favorite poets. A Lemon by Pablo Neruda. Love poems through his eyes and words were more lyrical because the man had been a hopeless romantic.

  Love cannot be fathomed or described by a person who hasn’t experienced the kind that people would kill for; the kind where people died weeks after the other’s passing. Experience was key to great knowledge and that man, to me, had it in spades.

  In my mind, I named this the Lemon Island.

  Lemons—the scent, the fruit, the color—would always be associated with this beautiful memory.

  A symbol of a very important turning point of my life. Who knew lemons were going to be that significant to me? I smiled at the thought.

  I Live For You and You Alone

  Almost a year later after Blasphemous

  Los Angeles

  Emma yawned, stretching after she ravished the entire portion of double chocolate cake. “I missed this,” she sighed, staring at the stars before glancing at me. “And I’ve definitely missed you.”

  She had just started school again, and I had been busy with work. We hadn’t seen each other in two weeks and yet; it felt like I hadn’t seen her in a lifetime. “Good to know I’ve been missed.” It was more than good. In fact, I was relieved. A part of me was actually terrified that she might up and leave me because the going was getting tough… and it was getting tougher by the day.

  Greece. Filming. Carter. Break-up. Jealousy. Heartbreak. Blasphemous. Nikki. Carter again. Getting back together… and now, we’d come back to where we’d both begun getting to know each other. My patio, stargazing, talking and sharing stories while we spent some quality time together.

  The past months had been shitload after shitload of volatile trials. Even after Nikki, the woman who I had a fling with during filming and the consequences that had come after it; Emma was still by my side.

  She loved me, I knew that, but even if the entire world knew about our relationship, Carter hadn’t withdrawn his interest in her. In fact, it was only last week that I heard him say he loved her while we were on a video call. You see, Emma was in the kitchen when everyone flooded in from his recent game, and the dick hadn’t cared that Emma was talking to her boyfriend because he daringly went straight to her and kissed her on the cheek before saying those three words, while I was there, witnessing it all happen.

  He was messing with my brain and confidence, and no matter how much I tried to push the worry aside; it remained there… taunting me. Emma, of course, apologized for his behavior, but it wasn’t her place to do that and I told her so.

  Normally, I’d have gone ballistic and I was. Inside, I was raging with fury. Yet, I had to keep my temper in check, stretching my limits to understand “his situation” because he was in love with my woman.

  There wasn’t a day that passed that I didn’t regret letting Emma go. Those eight months alone were barren, but what was worse was that it practically drove Emma back to him… and me having a fling. It was a gargantuan mistake that was weighing heavily on my chest, knowing that Nikki was going to milk every damn opportunity to drive a wedge between Emma and me.

  The unfortunate events had been rolling with unstoppable force. Even with all this worry, there was stress added by my parents, hectic work schedule… one thing remained the same.

  I was in love with Emma. Even more so now.

  Not a day had passed that my love hadn’t grown. Our love was one of my life’s goals to nourish and I would die trying to make sure that it remained that way.

  Reaching out for the remote, I switched it on to play sounds of nature; the sound of the waves in particular. The one sound we’d heard all summer long where we fell in love, deeply and irrevocably, with each other.

  When I heard her sigh in contentment, I got up from the rattan lounge chair and rounded my way towards her.

  Happiness ignited inside me as I watched her relaxed form. To this day, Emma still managed to take my breath away. Eyes bright, heart so full of life, I looked down on her face with love and affection.

  “Dance with me.” My hand reached out, offering it to her.

  She gave me a look of remembrance of our night together when I’d asked her to dance after she’d gotten back from London. With a loving smile, she got up, took charge and led us next to the fireplace. Wrapping her arms around my neck, she gave me a passionate kiss, breaking it only to whisper softly against my lips, “I remember it just like it was yesterday.”

  Greece was marked in our hearts. It was our place. The land where our hearts would forever call home.

  “Close your eyes, my love,” I softly demanded, kissing the tip of her nose. “Don’t open them until I tell you.” When she did as I asked, I pressed my check against hers, closing my own as we both were transported back in time. “Listen to my heart; it still and only will ever beat for you. We’ve come a long way, but I just want you to know that I’m the same man you fell in love with, the same man who held you as we danced in the moonlight.” Her heart rapidly thudded against my chest. “With each passing day, my love for you only ever increases. Times are changing. Our trials aren’t going away soon, but you must know one thing, you can always count on me to be your man.” Kissing her cheek before I softly kissed her parted lips, I whispered, “Happy anniversary, Emma.”

  She gasped, “Oh, God! I forgot.”

  I knew she did… but I hadn’t… I’d been waiting for this day. “Open your eyes.”

  Her eyes widened when she found me on one knee, holding out a ring. I was smiling at her, so full of love; I could combust with it all. Yet, instead of smiles, she was on the verge of tears. Beside herself with joy or fear, I couldn’t tell which.

  “Against all odds, you and I are still standing here, fighting to be together. Your bravery to stand beside me amidst all this gutting chaos touches me to no end. I had never doubted your love for me because I feel it each time your gaze catches mine.” I swallowed the lump of nervousness that was stuck in my throat. “I’ve come to a full circle, Emma, and that circle starts and ends with you. I want to keep you… forever, with you by my side, fighting against all the odds as my wife. I want to be forever yours. Eternally make you mine, but as your husband. Your partner. Your heart… and your home.”

  “Bass—” She sniffed, big fat tears rolling off her face. “I love you so much!” She knelt with me, capturing my lips with fervent kisses. “Yes! Yes! A thousand times yes!”

  ~ To be continued in Emma’s book, Fixated On You ~

  Torn Series:

  1. Scornfully Yours (Emma)

  1.5 Scornfully Hers (Carter Mason)

  2. Frayed (Trista) out now

  3. Blasphemous (Emma #2)

  3.5 Undeniably Yours (Bass Cole)

  4. Scorned (Lindsey)

  5. Fixated on You (Emma #3) Coming Soon

  6. Unveiled (Lindsey #2) January 2014

  7. Crushed (Amber) Coming in 2014

  Chasing Series:

  Chasing Beautiful

  Chasing Imperfection

  Chasing Paradise

  Chasing Forever (Lucy + Toby) Coming Fall 2013

  Chasing Christmas (A novella) December 2013

  Chasing Memories (Kyle Matthews) Coming in 2014

  ~
>
  Lily’s Mistake (out now)

  Loving Lily Coming Soon

  ~

  Formula Men Series

  Coming 2014

  Monza Luca di Medici

  Nice Jacques Bertrand

  Barcelona Andrès Franco

  Upcoming Stand-Alone Novels:

  My Summer in Venice

  Pieces of You & Me Fall 2013

  Havoc (Dark Erotica)

  Bartered (Dark Erotica) Coming in 2014

  The Woman In The Closet Coming in 2014

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  Thank you!

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