Love & Loss by C. J. Fallowfield Read Free Book Online Page A

rough few months and I don’t think I’ve helped at all.’
    ‘Gabe you didn’t have to do that.’
    ‘I wanted to Mia, even if we were over, you deserve it. Riley was going to pick you up from yours, but I rang him this morning to say you were here. Lexi’s packing for you, so why don’t you go and have a shower as you look like hell. I’ll get you a coffee and some water and make you some breakfast.’
    ‘I’m not hungry,’ I replied with a shake of my head.
    ‘We will argue if you don’t eat Mia. I’ve heard that you’ve hardly had anything all week, I wasn’t happy about it even before I saw you last night, I could tell straight away that you’d lost weight. Please move, I’m finding this really hard.’
    ‘Well while we have the weekend apart, I’d like us to make a list of things that we need to talk about properly to help us work, a list of what winds us up about the other and we have to discuss them calmly and rationally so we can agree how we’re going to handle them and move forwards.’
    ‘That sounds fair,’ he nodded with a smile. I grabbed his face and kissed him on the lips quickly, making him gasp before he clasped the back of my head and pulled me back to him. I groaned and sagged against him, grasping his hair and tugging it as we kissed ferociously. The friction from the stubble on his face only added to the frenzy of it for me and the heat spread through my entire body as I saw stars.
    ‘Baby stop, please stop,’ he groaned in return as he eventually pulled away. ‘I can’t do this without fucking you, it’s not fair.’
    ‘I just miss you,’ I panted as he rested his forehead on mine.
    ‘You’ve no idea how happy I am to hear that, I don’t deserve you Mia.’
    ‘Gabe don’t, please don’t do that. We both have faults and you drive me insane sometimes, but I know you always have my best interests at heart. You’re the kindest, most generous and big hearted person I know,’ I whispered as my eyes filled up with tears.
    ‘Please don’t cry, you know it kills me. You were crying in your sleep, and muttering too,’ he sighed as he brushed the drops from my lower lashes.
    ‘I woke you?’
    ‘I didn’t sleep. You were so drunk that I was worried you were going to be sick, so I sat up watching you all night.’
    ‘O Gabe.’ I flung my arms around his neck and kissed it again and again. How could I ever doubt the depth of his feelings for me? Even with his retaliatory words of anger, he still loved me far more than I deserved.
    ‘Baby please,’ he sighed against my neck as he squirmed below me. ‘This is absolute torture for me. Shower, now.’ He stood up in one easy move with me in his arms and carried me to his bathroom, almost making me swoon. For the first time I saw him smile down at me, a proper full smile which made my heart leap. I could be good for him, we could be good for each other.
    He set me on the floor and as his eyes ran down my body he groaned, bit his lip and quickly closed and reopened them. After a sigh and a shake of his head he spun on his heels and left, closing the door behind him. I smiled widely, for the first time in days. I knew we still had a lot to work out, but at least we’d made a start, thanks to Lexi and her interfering ways. I emerged from the shower feeling remarkably more alert and fresh. I quickly dried my hair, brushed my teeth and did some eye makeup and moisturising and went to his wardrobe to rummage amongst my spare clothes for some clean underwear. I pulled on my jeans, a black jumper and my boots and headed downstairs, amazed I hadn’t been sick from having drowned my sorrows so hard last night. I found him in the kitchen and smiled to see him at the range.
    ‘Like old times eh?’ he grinned. I nodded and walked up to him and carefully touched his black eye.
    ‘Are you ok? This and your jaw look really sore.’
    ‘You should see the other guy,’ he joked.
    ‘Gabe. It’s not funny, it was Doug . You had a fight