FALLING FOR THE LYCAN BIKER: MY BESTFRIEND BROTHER

Chapter 77: MY LOVE IS SUFFICIENT ENOUGH FOR BOTH OF US

Chapter 78

Ren

"What... I do not understand... what are you saying?" Lumi choked out, her voice trembling in the dim light of the hallway.

I could hear the confusion in her words, the wide, panicked look in her dark eyes as she stared up at me.

I knew it was throwing her into a spiral, but I couldn’t take it back. She wanted the truth.

She was standing in front of me accusing me of using her, of treating her like some cheap distraction, and I was done letting her believe that lie.

"You wanted to know the truth," I said, my voice rough, dragging up from the bottom of my lungs.

"That’s what I’m saying." She shook her head, pressing herself tighter against the wall, her hands coming up to rub at her chest as if she couldn’t catch her breath.

"That’s... you’re lying... you’re joking." I didn’t say anything to defend myself.

I just leaned in a fraction closer, my hand still pinned to the wall beside her head, and let her look right into my eyes.

I let her see every single piece of the dark, heavy truth I’d kept buried for years.

I let her see how much she meant to me, how completely she had owned me before I even had the right to call myself a man.

"Sometimes I feel like I loved you even way before that, Lumi," I murmured, my thumb brushing the edge of her warm cheekbone.

"I’ve always loved you." She blinked rapidly, her eyes glossy with unshed tears, searching my face like she was trying to read a language she’d never been taught.

"Ren... no," she whispered, her voice breaking completely.

"No, that doesn’t make any sense. Back... all those times... you were just there! You were always following Neve and me around. I... I thought you were just hanging around us because of Neve! Because you were her younger brother!"

"I didn’t give a damn about where Neve was going," I told her, my chest rising and falling fast against hers.

"Neve was just my cover. You were older than me, you looked at me like a kid, and if I didn’t tag along behind my sister, I wouldn’t get to see you at all.

I spent years watching you read on the porch, watching you laugh at stupid jokes, just waiting until I was old enough for you to notice me." A look of pure horror and guilt washed over her face.

She covered her mouth with her trembling hand, a choked sob escaping her throat.

"Oh God," she breathed, her shoulders slumping as if a heavy weight had just crushed her.

"I... I led you on. All those times I hugged you, all those times I told you I missed you when I went... I was treating you like family. Ren, I’m so sorry. I didn’t know. I’m so, so sorry..."

"Stop," I growled, my jaw tightening instantly. I reached out, my large fingers wrapping gently but firmly around her chin, forcing her to look up at me.

"Do not apologize to me for that, Lumi. Don’t you dare sit here and blame yourself for my feelings. I’m a grown man. I knew what I wanted then, and I know what I want now. You didn’t lead me on. You were just living your life."

"But... I don’t know what to say..." she whispered, tears finally spilling over her lashes, tracing hot lines down her pale cheeks.

"You don’t have to say anything, babe. I was the one that loved you first, it’s on me. I was the one that waited for you to come back seven years ago. It’s my choice and it has nothing to do with you. "

"You waited...for me? You..."

"Yeah," I rasped, my thumb wiping the moisture from her cheek.

" I waited for you. I waited four whole years, holding onto that stupid promise like a fool, thinking every time the phone rang it was going to be you saying you were coming home." I swallowed hard, the old, bitter pain clawing at my throat.

"And then Neve called me one afternoon," I continued, my voice dropping into a dark, jagged whisper.

"And she told me you were getting married." Lumi gasped softly, her eyes widening.

"It broke me," I confessed, letting her hear the raw ruin in my tone.

"It completely destroyed me. I didn’t know what to do with myself. I went back to the territory, and that was the night I let my father set up the arrangement with Victoria.

I chose her as my mate because I didn’t care anymore. If I couldn’t have you, it didn’t matter who I was tied to." She stared at me, completely speechless.

"Ren..."

Me saying all these things isn’t to hurt her, it’s cause I’m tired.

I’m tired of hiding my feelings. Tired of being the strong one. Tired of letting circumstances decide who I end up it.

I was done. I loved her and no one can make me say otherwise.

"I was at your wedding, Lumi," I admitted softly.

Her lips parted in shock. "What?"

"I was there," I repeated, a dry, humorless smile touching my mouth.

"I stood in the back of the church behind the pillars. I flew all the way to the UK just to watch you walk down the aisle in that white dress.

I couldn’t show my face to you or Neve...I couldn’t stand there and pretend to be happy for you...but I couldn’t stay away either."

"You... you came to London?" she breathed, her hands coming up to grip the fabric of my gray t-shirt, anchoring herself to me.

"Neve said you were busy with pack business..."

"I was busy with my personal business but if I tell myself the truth, that company was a decision I made because I wanted to be close to you." I said quietly.

Lumi blinked, stunned into absolute silence.

"You have a company in the UK?"

Fuck! I almost let out my secret.

I shifted, cutting off that train of thought before she could dig into the messy details of my financial network.

"That doesn’t matter right now."

"Ren, you built a business there?" she pressed, her voice high with disbelief.

"I needed a reason to cross the ocean whenever I wanted," I told her, my eyes locking onto hers with a fierce, possessive grip that made her breath hitch.

"I needed to know that if you ever needed anything, if your life ever fell apart, I was already in the same country. I stayed in the dark, Lumi. I watched you from a distance, I hated the man who held you, but I stayed close. Because it has always been you."

She looked up at me, completely overwhelmed, her chest heaving as she processed every single secret I had just laid out on her small hallway floor.

The anger she had walked in with was completely gone, replaced by a deep, breathless wonder that had her trembling in my shadow.

"I love you, Lumi," I whispered, leaning down until my lips brushed against the shell of her ear.

"Ren..."

"I love you," I repeated, my hand sliding down from the wall to wrap around her waist, pulling her flush against my chest. I felt her heart hammering wildly against my ribs.

"I’ve loved you for half my life, and I am never going to stop. Not for Victoria, not for the council, not for anyone."

Before she could form another sentence, I leaned down and captured her mouth with mine.

It wasn’t like the desperate, kiss in the car. This was deep, slow, and heavy with years of unspoken devotion.

A soft, helpless whimpering sound broke from her throat, her arms wrapping tight around my neck, her fingers tangling into the short hair at the nape of my neck as she melted completely against me.

I broke the kiss just an inch, resting my forehead against hers as we both panted for air.

"I love you. And I know you don’t love me that much but my love is sufficient enough for both of us." I growled softly against her lips, making sure she heard it again.

Without giving her a chance to pull away, I slid one arm beneath her knees and the other around her back, effortlessly lifting her up into my arms.

Lumi gasped, burying her face into the crook of my neck, her hands clinging to my shoulders as I carried her down the dark hallway, careful not to make a sound past Theo’s cracked bedroom door.

I pushed open the door to her bedroom and walked inside, letting the door click shut behind us.

The room was quiet, moonlight filtering through the curtains and bathing the large bed in a soft silver glow.

I walked over to the side of the mattress and gently laid her down against the white sheets.

She looked up at me, her cheeks flushed, her hair spread out across the pillow like dark silk.

I knelt on the edge of the bed, my large hands coming up to grasp the hem of her cream blazer. Slowly, carefully, I unbuttoned it, sliding the fabric off her shoulders and tossing it onto the chair nearby.

"Ren," she whispered, her voice trembling with emotion.

"You are so beautiful, Lumi," I murmured, my thumbs tracing the soft line of her collarbone, brushing right over the faint, dark mark I had left there this morning. "So damn beautiful. You have no idea what you do to me."

My hands moved to her blouse, unbuttoning it with steady, deliberate patience, reminding her with every touch, every look, and every low breath that she was the only woman who had ever existed in my world.