At First Hate by K.A. Linde
Atlanta
Present
“Hey, Mars.”
Derek Ballentine stood outside of my door in Atlanta. And he looked… good. He looked fucking great. He had on chinos and a white button-up with the top button undone and his sleeves rolled up to his elbows. None of the fatigue I saw on my own face from our breakup was visible on him. His pouty lips were upturned and his hazel eyes so bright and endearing. He looked more like a Greek statue in that moment than a man at all.
“What are you doing here?” I blurted out.
My friends rustled around behind me. I had no clue what they were doing, but clearly, they were trying to be stealthy and failing.
Derek shot them an amused look. “Mind if I come in?”
“I…” I blinked at him in confusion. “Sure.”
I pulled the door open wider and let him in. That was when I found Cole helping Josie to her feet—maybe she’d had more than I thought—and Lila trying to herd them away.
“We were just going,” Lila said in a perky tone.
“You don’t have to go,” I said.
She waved me away and helped Cole maneuver Josie. “Call me if you need me.”
She winked at me and then hustled out of my apartment with her boyfriend. Why did this feel so familiar? Hadn’t Josie and I plotted something similar only a few months ago for her? Had they contacted Derek?
“That was… subtle,” I said after she closed the door.
“Indeed. I don’t think any of them are much known for their subtlety.”
“Did they call you?”
Derek furrowed his brow. “No. Should they have?”
“It’s their style.”
“No, I’m not here at their behest, but my own.”
“And why is it that you’re here?”
“For you, of course.”
“Right,” I said softly. My head was fuzzy, and I didn’t think it was the alcohol. Derek was here. He was here. And I’d ended it. So, it wasn’t adding up. “But…”
“You thought I was going to let you go that easily?”
“Derek, it’s not that I wanted this to happen. But with everything between us…”
“I screwed up in the past,” he said, taking my hand in his. “I didn’t see what was in front of me. But Marley, I’ve been searching for you my whole life. I’d be an idiot to not fight for you. I choose you. I want you.”
My mouth went dry as I heard him utter the words I’d always wanted to hear. “But the case…”
“Funny story: I dropped the case.”
My jaw fell open. “You did what?”
“I told my dad that I wouldn’t do it.”
“But… but partner?”
He shrugged. “My dad was pissed, but once he got over me dropping the case, he was actually impressed. Nothing he’d said made me bend or break to him, and I think he could respect that.”
“I don’t know what to say,” I whispered. It was all so much. Everything I wanted and couldn’t believe he was saying. Was it possible that he’d actually given this up for me? “I don’t want you to resent me for this.”
“How could I? You never asked me for it. I did it because you were right. It wasn’t fair to have that case between us. Not when I was pursuing you. And I didn’t want to stop that, Mars. I want to be with you. I want you to be mine. All mine.” He brought my hands up to his lips and placed a kiss on them. “I know we have a long way to go, but when I’m with you, everything disappears. I just exist here with you.”
Tears came to my eyes. Just when I’d thought I had none left. “I want that too, Derek. But what about Atlanta? I can’t leave my job.”
“And I’d never ask you to. What you’re doing is important, and you’re fucking brilliant at it. We might have to be long distance for a while, but we can make it work while I figure out my situation.”
“Figure out what?”
“Dad has always wanted to expand,” he said with a shrug. “I floated the idea for me to open Ballentine Law in Atlanta.”
I blinked. I couldn’t process those words. “You’d move to Atlanta? But your life is in Savannah…”
“You’re here,” he said, drawing me closer. “You’re my life.”
“Oh my God, Derek.”
“Would you want that?”
“Yes,” I gasped. “Of course I want that!”
He grinned. “Good.”
“This is real?”
He laughed softly. “It’s real, Mars. A hundred percent real. Any other objections to us being together? Please allow me to disabuse you of any other notions.”
I bit my lip, shook my head, and then threw my arms around him. “No objections.”
“Then, you’re mine?”
“Yes, Derek. God, I’ve always been yours.”
He spun me in a circle before slowly dropping me back to my feet. His hands cupped my jaw, and his mouth dipped down to mine. Our lips slanted together, tasting each other, as if all of this were completely new and wonderful. My heart was full to bursting. I could hardly breathe, knowing what he’d done to be with me. That he’d actually chosen me above all else. I’d thought that this was our last and final good-bye, but in reality, it was our next beginning.
“Minivan?” he teased against my lips.
“Yes?”
“I love you.”
I shivered all over. “I love you too.”
Our eyes locked as those words sealed our future forever. No more barriers between us. Nothing left to pull us apart. This was real. It was real.
“I love you to Mars and back.”
I kissed him again, breathlessly. We were still tangled together when the door cracked back open again.
“Did it work out?” Josie asked with a giggle.
I broke away from Derek, laughing as Lila and Cole tumbled into the apartment after her. “Were you all listening?”
Derek just shook his head at my friends as they all spoke at once, trying to explain the situation.
“Can you blame us?” Lila asked. “We want you to be happy.”
“I guess not,” I said.
“You’re maybe ruining the moment,” Derek said with a laugh.
“Ruining the moment is kind of their specialty,” Cole said. He offered his hand to Derek, who looked at it for a moment and then shook. “Congrats, man.”
“Thanks. You too.”
Lila and Josie wrapped me in a hug, jumping up and down with excitement. They insisted on going out with us tomorrow, and then Derek was carefully herding them out of the apartment.
“Okay, I admit it.”
“What?” I asked, taking his hand and drawing him toward my bedroom.
“Lila isn’t that bad.”
I cackled. “I accept this.”
“But we have one problem.”
I arched an eyebrow as I toed the door to my room open. “I don’t see a problem. I see a king-size bed.”
“That is definitely not the problem.”
“Oh?” My hands were already fiddling with his belt buckle. Eager for us to make up properly.
“We’re going to have to elope.”
I stalled at those words and looked up at him in confusion. “What?”
“I had one more thing to do before I left Savannah.”
Then, he dropped to a knee before me. My mind went completely and totally blank as he produced a small blue box.
“Derek,” I whispered in shock.
“I don’t want to wait another day for you to be my wife. I don’t want to live in a world where you aren’t my everything. I want to be tied to you in every way possible.” He cracked the box open to reveal a simple cushion cut ring with a tiny band of diamonds around it. It was elegant and gorgeous. Maybe the most beautiful ring I had ever seen in my entire life. “Marry me.”
“Oh my God,” I gasped.
“Is that a yes?” he asked with a laugh.
“Yes!” I said, my entire body shaking with disbelief.
He plucked the ring out of the box and slid it onto my finger. It fit like it had always been meant to be there. As if it had been made for my finger, just as Derek Ballentine had been made for me.
I kissed him, and we spilled onto the bed with delirious energy. We made love late into the evening, reuniting over and over again and forgetting everything in the world around us. Then, as the sun rose over our new joining, we made plans that I’d never thought we’d get to make together. And I’d never been happier making them with him.
Just him. Always him.