Surrender (The Forbidden Series Book 3) Read Online Free Page A

meet mine, and as he starts to walk towards me I know exactly who he is. And I don’t know whether to feel relieved, angry, or scared…

Four
     
     
    Neal
     
    She knows how to work a room. Her smile has every man falling at her feet, and even the women seem to connect with her in a way they never really could with Kira. Helen’s comfortable in this world. Kira never really was. Women felt threatened by her, and men could never really concentrate when she was around them because the signals she sent off – she didn’t know she was doing it, but there was something about her that had the ability to knock people sideways. Including me. But she was never comfortable in this world. And this world is still somewhere I need to be. I need it to level things out. I need The Playroom and the escape that gives me, too, but this – this world is the necessary contrast I can’t do without now. I need both worlds, whereas once, one of them would have done.
    ‘Neal?’
    My head shoots up at the sound of her voice and I smile as she reaches out to gently touch my cheek. ‘Sorry, baby, I guess I drifted off there for a few seconds.’
    ‘You’ve been doing that a lot lately.’
    I sigh quietly, because of course she must have noticed that. I know myself how distant I’ve been with her as Joey and Benni’s wedding draws nearer. I know myself how I’ve questioned this relationship, time and time again, for so many different reasons. But I think I’ve finally come around to the fact that she’s exactly what I need now. There are just one or two more hurdles to get over and then, maybe, if I just start to believe in us, we really could be OK.
    ‘Has this got anything to do with the fact she’s coming back here?’
    Her question takes me by surprise, although, it shouldn’t, not really. She always knew how much I loved Kira. She always knew no woman was ever gonna match up to her, and yet still she persisted, biding her time. And her time finally came. But she knows – she knows that Kira coming back to New York, that’s not something I can ignore. I just don’t think she needs to be concerned now. I can do this. I’m finally moving on. Yeah, I can do this.
    I take her hand and bring it to my mouth, kissing it lightly before I touch her waist and gently pull her forward. ‘That’s all over now, Helen, OK? Me and Kira, we’re done. She’s getting married, she’s living her new life, and that’s exactly what I want to do, too. I want to live my new life, with you. If you’ll still have me.’
    She smiles and strokes my cheek and her touch is nice. It’s comforting and safe and, yeah. It’s nice. Is it giving me butterflies I can’t control? No. Not yet. But that’ll come. I just need to give myself some time.
    ‘I’ve loved you for so long, Neal. You know that, don’t you?’
    I take her hand and curl my fingers around hers, leaning in to kiss her softly, and while kissing her still doesn’t set my heart on fire, I kinda need what she can give me. I’d all but shut myself off from her, put up barriers to protect myself from investing too much of myself into this relationship, but now – now I think I need to lower those barriers and let her into my life that little bit more. She deserves that. She didn’t deserve the way I’ve been treating her these past few months. ‘Yeah. I know.’
    I smile and I kiss her again and she pushes herself against me but the spark is still barely there. And I know I need to be patient because, for a few, beautiful months I was used to experiencing the kind of emotions I never even knew were possible. But maybe that wasn’t reality. Maybe that was never meant to be my life. Maybe that was nothing more than a wake-up call. Kira Blu came into my life to wake me up, to drag me out of my stupor and remind me that there was a life out there I should be living. I was just never meant to live it with her. All she was doing was getting me ready, for this, for what I have now. And