Free Stolen Memories: A Novella by Alyson Reynolds

but I couldn’t. I wanted to believe him, but the thought terrified me. I broke the kiss and took a step back from him.
    “Hunt, I’ve been in love with you for a long time. I always pretended what I felt wasn’t there because you were my best friend and I couldn’t lose you. Right now, I need some time to process everything. You lied to me.”
    “I didn’t—”
    “Maybe you didn’t lie, but you sure as hell didn’t tell the whole truth.”
    “What do I need to do to get you to forgive me, baby?”
    “Give me time to figure this out. I don’t think you really love me; I think you’re swept away in playing the knight in shining armor, like always. You do have a complex about that you know,” I said, trying to make a joke. The expression on his face told me it fell flat.
    “Megan, don’t do this. Please. This isn’t some game that you’re convinced I play. I finally admitted to myself that the reason none of those other relationships worked was because they weren’t you. It took me too fucking long to realize what I had right in front of me. Please don’t push me away.”
    “When I asked you what you got out of marrying me, you said, ‘I finally get to fuck you.’ I don’t have some magic pussy that made you fall in love with me. It doesn’t work that way, Hunt. I’m sorry. Sex, even amazing sex, isn’t going to make this last forever.”
    I looked into his beautiful emerald eyes and I felt my heart shattering. He might think that he loved me, but in a few years, if not sooner, he would regret his white knight decision. I didn’t want to be in this even deeper and get hurt any worse than it was hurting now.
    “We need to just take a step back. I’m safe and you saved my sister, which I’ll be forever grateful for, but I’m afraid you’re going to regret your decision to try to make a life with me. What happens if, in three months, you get the same urge to run like you do with all those other women?”
    “That’s not going to happen,” he growled.
    “We don’t know that. It might,” I whispered. “Give me a day or two and I’ll get my mother and sister out of your house.”
    “They aren’t leaving and neither are you. You’re my wife, damn it.” God this man was stubborn.
    I smiled at him through the tears in my eyes.  
    “I just need some time.”
     

The next morning, I ventured out of my apartment even though I felt like I had been run over by a bus. My dark sunglasses hid my red-rimmed eyes, but they didn’t explain my red nose. I worked out a cover story in my head that I had a cold from hell if anyone actually asked me what was wrong. I was craving bagels from the coffee shop down the street, and I hoped I could make it there and back without running into anyone I knew.
    Luck wasn’t on my side, though. One of my old sorority sisters stood waiting in line to get her morning coffee. Even worse she spotted me as soon as I walked in the door.
    “Megan! How are you doing?”
    “I’m good, Samantha. How are you? It’s been a while.”
    “The last time I should have seen you, you didn’t show up.”
    I winced. I had forgotten she was invited to the wedding.
    “About that,” I started. She grabbed my hand and squealed.
    “Your ring is gorgeous. Did you guys end up eloping? Michael looked pretty mad that you had left him at the altar all by himself, but I guess you guys reconciled. You never were one for pomp and ceremony.”
    “No,” I said quickly. “I definitely didn’t marry Michael.”
    “Then who in the hell did you marry?”
    Shit. I should have thought this through first. Leaving my apartment was a horrible idea.
    “Um...Hunter and I eloped on the night I was supposed to marry Michael.”
    To her credit, Samantha didn’t look surprised; instead, she looked elated. “Oh, thank goodness. You guys needed to be together. I’m glad you both wised the fuck up.”
    Huh? What the damn hell?
    “Come again? I’m sorry; I thought you just said that Hunt and I