Paint Me, Violet (Sanford Series #6) [Completed]

CHAPTER 19

SHE SIGHED softly when she felt Harrison's lips on her shoulder. He trailed kisses to her neck until he reached the back of her head. He took one last kiss on her hair, and his embrace tightened from behind.

If she was still the old Tara, he'd probably lose his hand by now. But she wasn't, the old Tara was gone.

Mahabang katahimikan ang namagitan sa kanila sa mga sumunod na sandali. She was tired from their activity earlier but she can't sleep knowing that he was there and remembering what he said.

Hindi ito umalis pagkatapos na may mangyari sa kanila sa kanyang studio na nasa loob ng bahay. Sa halip ay pumasok ito sa kanyang silid at doon naghintay sa kanya. Nagulat na lang siya nang may humalik sa kanya pagkapasok na pagkapasok niya sa kanyang silid pagkatapos nilang kumaing pamilya. At higit pa sa halik ang nangyari pagkatapos.

"You don't have to say anything, Violet, for now," he whispered to her ear. She knew what he was talking about. It felt like a heavy metal was lift-off from her chest hearing those words. She doesn't know what he expected from her, she doesn't know what to tell him either. "I love you, I've been in love with you for a long time."

Tara Violet literally stopped breathing when she heard those words again. Her brain malfunctioned, and her heart was thumping with complete exaggeration. How can he say that as if it was nothing? Like he doesn't know the indication of his words and their effect in whatever relationship they had.

"Breathe, I still want you alive," he said with a tinge of humor.

Dahil sa sinabi nito ay doon niya napagtantong pigil niya ang hininga. Malalim siyang bumuntumg-hininga at tumihaya ng higa. She looked at him in the eye and she almost ran away like a coward seeing the emotions in it. "Do you even know what you're saying?" she asked, confused.

She involuntarily closed her eyes when his fingers touched her cheek gingerly, like a touch of a butterfly to nectar.

"You're my friend, Harrison, sometimes enemy. How can I accept your... I love you. 'Wag mong ipagkamali ang nararamdaman mo, you love me as a friend and that's okay." Talaga ba, Tara? tuya ng kanyang isipan. "How can you love someone like me... on another level?"

Harrison held her head in place and staring intensely at her that he might have a glimpse of her soul. "I know my own feelings and I've thought about this a lot of times... years ago. I recognized my feelings for you years ago, Tara Violet."

"Years ago?" she asked and swallowed. Maybe she's gullible for believing him, but she believed him nonetheless. How can he love her for years without her knowing? He was her mortal enemy, he exasperated her, he was good at getting into her nerves. But he was also always there for her.

Come to think of it, Tara. He will come to you wherever you are or whenever the time of the day it was when you call her. He can tolerate your bad behaviors. He would annoy you, but he would also woo you afterward. Because of him, your life had never been boring.

Harrison nodded with a faraway look in his eye and then smiled as if he remembered a happy memory. "I don't know when it started. Perhaps when you punched me the first time we met. Maybe when you cry when I fell on the swing when you were nine, and I acted like I died."

A nostalgic smile appeared on her lips when she remember that incident, how can she forget that if it was her first time to cry hardly. Nasa swing sila't naglalaro, pinapaalis niya si Harrison sa swing upang siya naman ang gumamit noon dahil wala ng ibang bakante nang hindi ito pumayag kaya itinulak niya ang swing. Itinulak niya iyon ng itunulak hanggang sa naging malakas ang paggalaw niyon sa hangin. Harrison lost his grip and fall, she thought he died when he didn't move for minutes and his eyes closed. Umiyak siya ng umiyak habang ginigising ito ngunit hindi pala ito nahimatay at ginulat siya sa huli. Yes, Harrison was a dick to her since they were young.