Unconditional Love (Journey of Love #1)(53)
Author: Kelly Elliott

I walked over to her and dropped to my knees. “I’m so sorry, mi amor. I wish I could shield you from everything, but I can’t because I do have a past.” I swallowed hard and decided to just be honest with her.

“I’ve been with a lot of women, and I know you know that already, but you have to believe me when I say none of it meant anything to me. You’re my life. You’re my everything and I would do anything right now to go back and change things…but I can’t.”

She let out a sob and looked at me. “I don’t want you to change anything, what happened before me was before me, but I can’t lie and say it doesn’t hurt my heart to think about all the…all the…”

I reached up and grabbed the back of her neck and brought her lips to mine. “You are all that matters to me. I forgot about every girl I’d ever been with the moment you gave yourself to me. I swear to you, Azurdee. You’re my everything. I love you and you are the only woman I’ve ever loved like this. I want to spend the rest of my life with you.”

Her eyes widened and she whispered, “What?”

I smiled and pushed her hair back and away from her face. “That’s why I brought you here.”

A confused look washed over her face. “I don’t understand. What are you saying, Lark?”

“Let’s take a hot shower and get some dinner and I’ll explain everything. Sound good?”

She seemed like she wanted to argue with me and I knew I had just dropped a bomb on her.

“I promise I’ll explain everything after dinner.”

She nodded and said, “Okay.” I took her hand in mine and led her to the master bedroom and then into the shower where we both took a long hot shower together.

I got out of the shower first and told her to take her time while I got dressed. I quickly dried off and got dressed. I made my way downstairs where I took the bottle out of my bag and set it down on the kitchen island.

I went and sat down in the living room and saw my jeans lying on the floor. I pulled out my phone and made one quick phone call. As I hung up I looked up and saw Azurdee coming down the stairs.

She was dressed in a navy blue strapless dress that hugged her body in all the right places but was free and flowing right around her knees. She had a white sweater on and her hair was pulled up with a few curls hanging down. My eyes moved down her perfect legs to see she was wearing a pair of black wedge shoes. My breath caught in my throat as I said, “Wow. You look beautiful.”

She stopped at the bottom of the stairs and spun around and said, “I wasn’t sure where we were going for dinner, so I dressed kind of in the middle.”

I walked up to her and reached out for her hands. I stood back and looked her body up and down and smiled.

“You hungry?” I asked.

She quickly nodded her head and said, “Starved. All that sex worked up my appetite.”

I laughed and said, “Oh, there is plenty more of that after dessert.”

“Well, we better bring home leftovers then,” she said with a wink as we made our way out to my truck.

I opened the door for her, shut it, and said a quick prayer that I didn’t fuck this evening up.

Lark and I walked along the beach after dinner and I could tell he had something on his mind. There was also the elephant in the room that neither one of us wanted to bring up again. I took a deep breath and just asked.

“When do you have to leave?”

He gripped my hand tighter and said, “We have to head back to Austin tomorrow.”

My heart sunk and I could feel the tears building in my eyes. I hated that I was so emotional around him. “I thought you were on leave?”

“I have to go back for…something.”

I nodded my head. I knew getting into this relationship with him meant that there was the big secret of his job. The fact that he told me he was still in the Marines, coupled with the lifestyle he led had me piecing things together. It was almost like he was a secret agent type person. Living a life that he wasn’t really living. I was a part of that pretend life and I wasn’t so sure how I felt about that.

“Will I ever get to meet your boss?” I asked.

Lark let out a chuckle and said, “Skip?” He shrugged his shoulders and said, “Maybe.”

I nodded my head and asked, “Is Jason or Paul going with you?”

Lark stopped and looked at me. “Why?”

I shook my head and said, “I don’t know…I’m just trying to make small talk about your job and since I only know bits and pieces of it…”

“Can we change the subject?” he asked as he looked out into the black sea of water.

“Of course we can.”

We walked a bit longer in silence when we stopped and Lark turned and looked at me. “My father talked to me on Christmas night about something.”

I smiled and nodded my head. I remembered when he asked to talk to both Lark and Tristan. After that conversation was when Tristan became really distant with Ryn and Lark’s mother smiled at me like she knew a secret.

I nodded my head and said, “I remember.”

He smiled and shook his head. “My father and mother both knew the moment they saw us together that I loved you. Me on the other hand, I was nothing but scared and unprepared for falling in love with you.”

He looked down and then back up at me. “I think I fell in love with you the moment I saw you. Something happened and I fought like hell for almost a year to push it away. I’d find myself just sitting there thinking about you. I wondered what you were doing. If you were happy, sad, lonely. I prayed like hell you weren’t dating anyone.”

I grinned as he smiled at me. “I’ve lived my life on the edge for so many years, Azurdee. Not caring if I died or not because I thought I didn’t have anything, or anyone, to live for. Then I met you and everything changed. It was like I was a blank page waiting for you to write our future together on it.”

I swallowed hard and wiped away the tear that was making its way down my cheek.

“You think about our future?” I asked.

He smiled and nodded his head. “Yes. Do you?”

I felt my cheeks heat up as I nodded my head. “Probably more than I should,” I said.

He took my hand in his and said, “Let’s go back to the house. I have to tell you about the journey.”

I looked at him confused. “What journey?”

He laughed and said, “That was my response, too.”