Free The Lariat (Finding Justus Series) by Ashley Dotson

want. In fact I haven’t had a drink since…”
    “You haven’t had a drink since I smashed your bottle against the classroom wall.” He finished the sentence for me.
    I thought back through the events of the past week. Cyrus was right. I had quit drinking with his arrival at Trinity. That had to mean something, I admitted.
    “I’m just not ready,” I mumbled. “I don’t know if I ever will be. I walked through Hell for Orrin. Literally. And I would do it again a hundred times over.”
    “Of course you would,” he moved to stand in front of me. “But know I would do it for you.”
    I had trouble thinking when he was near and he knew it. I leaned back against the kitchen counter and he braced his legs on either side of mine. He moved in closer leaning over me securing any retreat with his hands on either side of me. “I know you love him. You will always love him, but I ask you again- have you closed your heart to the possibility of ever finding love again? Don’t you think Darringer would want you to have a second chance at love? Do you think he would want you to sit here and pine over him miserably?”
    “And again I say, I don’t know . To be honest with you, I haven’t spoken to him in almost three years.”
    “I know,” he whispered hesitantly.
    “I figured,” I admitted readily.
    “What do you think he is doing right now? You have been so close for so long. No man should let his love exist in such misery. He is living while you are still in limbo. Do you think he has this much anger pent up and directed at you? It’s clouding your judgment. It’s repressing the better part of you. Do you think he is wallowing in his lost love like you have been doing for three years?”
    “No, he’s probably not,” my face burned thinking of him and Daisy together, the heat running down my neck igniting the skin under my tattoo. I felt the familiar burn begin under my skin. “He’s. With. Her.”
    “That’s right. He made his choice but you still haven’t made yours.” He took my hand and I instantly pulled the fire back within my core. Burned bits of dishtowel floated to the floor- I didn’t even realize it was in my hand. Even though Cyrus was a constant irritation, I didn’t want to burn him again. He placed my hand over his heart.
    “I know you’re not going to understand this, but I love you, Layla. I’ve loved you much longer than he has, and I’ve waited twice as long. His eternity could only equal half of my lifetime. I have walked this Earth waiting for Lillith’s prophecy, waiting for you. When I learned you had tied your soul so hastily to that Daemon spawn, Darringer, I was lost. I lost you before you were ever mine. I could not breathe one more breath without speaking this truth.”
    Holy crap. What?
    I shook my head, “I don’t understand why you’re saying this.”
    Cyrus just professed his love for me after only a week in my presence. I didn’t understand the why or how of it all- I didn’t understand him. I didn’t know him.
    “How can you possibly love me? You barely know me.” I asked incredulously.
    “You know,” he began, how he could smile at a serious time like that? “I didn’t expect your feelings to match my own, but I did expect something besides that .”
    “Cyrus…” I began.
    “Layla, no. You don’t get to speak right now. I’m not going anywhere. I would never leave you, unless that was your wish. You have my heart, my loyalty, my protection, my life. You have everything I could ever be, and you are everything I could ever want. I just want you to weigh your options carefully and include me in them.”
    My head was spinning. Without even thinking I took a long painful swig of my vodka.
    He laughed.
    “Put the drink down,” he reached for my glass and finished the rest of it in one gulp. “Forget him and be with me.”
     

 
     
     
    10
     
     
     
    “Shut up. Did he really say that?”
    “He sure did.” Ben was feeling much better. She spent