Loves Redemption by Kimberly Terry (best books to read for teens .TXT) 📕

saying isn’t true. I think it’s possible to go your entire life without meeting that one person you connect with on all levels. For whatever reason, God smiled on me and allowed us to meet, for which I will be eternally grateful.”

When she smiled that small half smile she favored and placed her arms around his neck,

Mark stifled his automatic groan of frustration. He placed his arms around her small body and hugged her tight.

From the beginning, he hadn’t shied away from expressing his feelings toward her, yet

she continued to hold some small piece of herself back from him.

He knew she cared about him, but he wasn’t sure to what level, because she never told

him. Her lack of expression in turn prevented him from telling her out right he loved her. Which he did.

Irrevocably. Completely. Overwhelmingly. Loved her.

He never knew he was capable of feeling the way he did for a woman, as he did with

Maya. They hadn’t been together for two months, yet he was couldn’t imagine not being with

her, not to have met her. His only wish was to have her express her feelings for him more openly.

A slight sigh emitted from his lips as he kissed the side of her neck before he moved his

head back to get a better look at her face.

“I didn’t mean to offend you, make light of your feelings, or to suggest I don’t believe

you. I do Mark, and that makes it special to me. That’s all I meant.”

He watched as she caught her lower lip with her top teeth and released it, only to pull it

back in, repeating the process several times. He caught the slightly full lip with his mouth and gently sucked on it, running his tongue along the inseam.

After he’d released it he looked at the edge made reddened from his ministrations. “I can

always tell when you feel uncertain about something or if you’re thinking deeply about a

subject.”

“Oh really? And how is that?”

“You start to pull at your lip. It drives me insane when we’re not in a place where I can

kiss you, because it’s really sexy.”

“When I was growing up it would drive my foster mother insane also, but not in the same

way as it does you,” she admitted with a short laugh.

“That had to be the fastest trip in recorded history,” he muttered with a sardonic lift to his lip. “Why did it drive the lovely Melissa insane?” He welcomed every bit of information he

could get about Maya. However, it wasn’t easy to listen to the cruel and senseless things her foster mother had subjected her to, and he usually forced himself not to cringe when Maya

mentioned her name.

“I remember sitting at the kitchen table, and I would feel Melissa’s glares. I knew better than to look at her, if I did, there was no telling what she’d say or do to me.”

Although it was hard to hear Maya speak about the hateful woman who raised her, Mark

forced himself to listen, soaking up everything he could to learn more about her.

“She made fun of everything about me. My hair, my body. When I first began to develop

she accused me of trying to seduce her lover Danny.”

“Jealous bitch,” he couldn’t refrain from mumbling under his breath in disgust of the

woman.

“Melissa didn’t like any of my mannerisms, that was one which particularly ticked her

off. I wasn’t even aware I was doing it until Danny made a comment about it, and Melissa lost it.

She ranted and screamed at me for hours. Finally left me alone and all I remember after that is laying my head down on the beat up kitchen table and crying. I have no idea how long I lay like that when I felt Ally pat my back. I looked up and there she was standing in front of me in her favorite Garfield pajamas, tears falling down her little face.”

“I found out years later where I inherited that particularly mannerism from,” Maya said,

returning the conversation to his original question. Although she was looking at him, he had the feeling that she wasn’t really seeing him as she began to speak about her grandmother …

“…Maya, I so dearly wished I could have gotten to know you. Your mother and I sent

letters to one another and she sent me pictures of my beautiful grandbaby but it wasn’t the same.

I honestly thought we’d be able to come back together as a family. I suppose I was just kidding myself. Or just being plain old scared and foolish.” Elizabeth Rutherford pulled her lower lip into her mouth with her front teeth and stopped herself with a small laugh.

“Your grandfather constantly teased me for that little habit after all of these years. In one of the letters your mama sent me she told me that you and I share that little idiosyncrasy so I suppose it can’t be all that bad if my grandbaby does it too.

“Maya I know that nothing can erase the past. There’s nothing I can say or do to exonerate my role in not supporting your mother and father better. All I can say is I’m sorry and my life has been devoid of real happiness for a long time.

“My prayer is you have been safe. Had I known you were all alone in this world, there is nothing or no one who would have prevented me from bringing you home. If it meant you and I would have created our own home than so be it. I swear to you, Maya, I would not have left you alone. I’ve been alone for a long time and it’s not a good feeling.

“I’ve left you everything, Maya. It’s the least I can do. Mr. Callahan has been my private