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*** Vance's POV***

"We have to communicate." I run my fingers up my face before they thread through my own hair. As much as I love Karis sucking my cock, we have to talk. There is a time and place for everything. Right now, I need her to take my fucking dick out of the vortex of her throat.

"Sorry." Karis giggles as she pops my member out of her mouth. The sight of her saliva connecting our parting flesh has me rethinking talking altogether. Christ alone, this woman is a damn distraction.

"What was that you were saying?" Karis curls her fingers around my wrist as she pulls herself up in the bed. With that nightie on, she can't help but draw my mind to far better topics. My balls tighten as I think of ripping the lace top off with my teeth.

"Talk. We need to." I crook my finger at the sexual deviant as she kisses her way up my chest. I get the feeling that somebody would rather be doing anything other than talking. I am more than happy to oblige her desires after we have a small discussion.

"You are right. Let's get it over with." Karis sighs as she straightens herself on the bed. I decide we should do this outside of the bedroom. Neither of the two of us need distractions.

"I know that this is an uncomfortable subject for you. However, communication is vital to our relationship." I turn towards the kitchen after I explain myself. It's too much to believe that anyone would want to revisit a dinner with my family. The gods above know that my sister and brother are less than compatible with ninety-five percent of the population.

"We aren't in a relationship. Remember, that is how this whole show began." Karis whispers words that leave me slightly confudled.

I know this woman is intelligent. I also happen to know that I have made my intentions perfectly clear. I would have this woman as my girlfriend at any moment. Fuck, honestly I would have already tried to marry her if she wasn't so improperly cared for in the past. I do not believe in building a home on a broken foundation.

"Karis, sweetheart, please explain." I take the gentle approach. I know that I have a tendency to jump to conclusions. I would not be doing myself justice to take a leap at the moment.

"It's nothing." Karis passes behind me in an attempt to get to the refrigerator. My hand wraps around her waist as I pull her close.

"Babygirl, I am not in a decent enough mood for passive aggressive conversation. If you have something you need to say, the floor is open. I am all ears." I stare down at Karis as she slowly closes her eyes with a minute shake of her head.

After just a moment, Karis pulls away from me. She makes her way into the fridge to pull out an energy drink. My eyes roll. Karis knows I hate when she drinks those things. They are positively awful for your system. Her insistence is the only reason I caved into having a few of them inside of my walls.

"They don't respect me. That much was clear. Truthfully, Vance I don't see why you do." As Karis takes a pause for breath, the air escapes my lungs. How the hell did my terrible family lead me into the hot seat?

"I think I have made myself perfectly clear. I will not stand around while you depreciate your value. That has not changed. I don't fucking care what that lot believes of you. It is not your job to impress them." My hands grip the counter tightly as I try desperately to control the building frustration inside of my chest.

"That sounds good on paper. It really does. The issue is, it is my job to impress them. If we have any hopes of building a future together, they will be a part of it. I have failed. There isn't really any way to change their minds. They are right in what they said. It hurts to know that they have made a valid point." Karis walks by me once again. I resist the urge to grab her. I want so badly to press her against the wall in an effort to help her slipping pieces fall back into place. It's exhausting trying to keep her in reality when she so easily slips into a delusion of never being enough.

"They are assholes. There must be some sort of genetic mutation that skipped me. I would never have approached you with such disregard." My hands visibly tremble as I continue to hold on to the edge of my countertop.

"Pointing out the truth does not make one an asshole, Vance. How was it wrong to say that I am imperfect after a divorce? Call it what you will but that is a failure. It takes two people to make a marriage work. I gave up. That is not exactly a recipe for success. While we are at it, what about children? I know you want a family of your own. They were not incorrect to ask me if I was able to provide the most basic of needs. I don't know if I can. That is a blaring red flag." Karis props herself against the dining room table. I cast daggers in her direction. I don't remember saying that I had to have a family.

"So this is how we are going to play this out? You are listening to the vile rubbish of insignificant larvae? You allow four people to so easily destroy all that we have started to build? I feel insulted that you find it so easy to dismantle the groundwork that we have established." At this point, I wish I had just allowed her to fuck my brains out. At least that explosion would have been pleasurable. This is just fucking insanity.

"You are kidding yourself Vance Teagan. You don't just grab the first damaged girl you see off of the streets. You can't just love all of my broken pieces away. Making me fall in love with you hasn't made everything that I brought into this situation disappear." Karis covers her mouth quickly with a sharp shriek.

If Karis thinks that I didn't register what she said, she is fucking wrong. The cat is out of the bag. She just spilled the beans.

"You love." I am cut off by Karis aggressively moving her head from shoulder to shoulder.

"Don't." Karis almost whimpers her demand.

"Fuck that shit. You are in love with me. Yet, you stand before me to tell me that I am not allowed to love you." I am openly astonished at how little Karis seems to know me. I don't get told how to feel. That isn't anyone's damn choice but my own.

"I'm not good for you. I will never be enough. We go round and round this bend constantly. I try to keep you in check while you attempt to ignore the obvious. We have fun together; I get that. However, when you paint us beside one another, we only make sense in the confides of a sex club. In the real world, Vance, we are not supposed to be together." Karis looks at me incredulously as if I am the one who isn't seeing clearly.

"How dare you. Don't you fucking reduce what we have to a night of fun. Furthermore, you are not some stranger that I picked up off of a park bench and tried to fix." Karis opens her mouth causing me to send a stern glare right at her.

"No, that is because you plucked me out of the parking lot of what I thought was a night club." Karis silently threatens me to argue with her.

"I don't regret that decision. I haven't yet and I will not. I'm not trying to fix you for the sake of a god damned project. I love you. I want you whole for you. I want you whole for us." My argument seems to be falling on intentionally deaf ears. Truthfully, she is crawling under my skin at the moment.

"We don't always get what we want, Vance. That's life. Your world has you so jaded into believing that the right amount of control over any situation can mold it into what you want. That's not the real world. I can't be fixed. I'm fucking broken. You deserve better." Karis drinks from that damn can smugly. I have the urge to rip it away from her and toss it in the fucking trash. She is using it to keep her ground. I don't like her platform.

"You don't get to say what I deserve. That's my fucking choice. I chose you. I choose you. I will always choose you. Scars and all, I'm trying to be with you. Yet, you stand there throwing all these irrelevant excuses for why we don't belong together. What do I have to do to prove to you that I want you just as you are?" I'm standing here shaking. I am baffled by the turn this conversation has taken. My only intention was to address my fucked up family so that we could move forward. Karis, apparently, is running because one detail of my life isn't as pretty as we would both like.

"That's where you are wrong. I get a choice. I get to choose to give you the gift of my absence. I love you enough to know that I am not what is best for you. Im making an informed decision to walk away so that my wounds don't bleed onto you. If I had been this mature with Christopher, I wouldn't be so damaged to begin with." Karis walks around the house, quietly gathering her belongings. I stare at her with fear racing in my veins.

"Squid, for fuck's sake. Squid." I tap out with a heave of my escaping breath.

"This is goodbye, Vance. It has been a beautiful experience. Thank you for everything. Please don't make this harder than it already is." Karis opens the door with a sad smile. My legs refuse to move towards her. I can't force her to be in love with me. Maybe I am not enough for her.

"Don't." My pathetic plea sounds insufficient for this moment. I want to will my mouth to open. I want magical words to dance across my lips. My heart feels heavy. Everything seems suddenly less meaningful as Karis slips away from me. The door closes with her on one side while I stand rooted to my place.

Minutes pass by as my body trembles. Every moment with my beautiful love pushes itself against my memory. Her smile and laugh compete for my attention. The way her lips taste sear across my skin. My mind scrambles to etch every memory deeper in hopes of not losing a single detail.

Suddenly, I find myself feeling empathetic towards Christopher. If this is a fraction of how he felt losing Karis, it is not any wonder that he contacted her relentlessly to try to reconnect. I already want to beg at her feet for my place inside of her life.

Instead, I grab my keys to go to the one place that has always brought me peace during life's biggest trials. This event surely out does any singular battle I have ever fought. Losing Karis is something I am unsure that I can recover from.

Everything inside of me screams for me to track her down. Knowing she hasn't gotten far, I toy with the idea of taking side streets to meet her at her house. My rationality comes to me in small waves, reminding me how such rash behavior did not pan out well for Christopher. If I want to push my way back in Karis' arms, I will need a well thought out plan. The only way to get an agenda together will be to employ Rex and Finn's help.

Finn knows how to work his way against an escape artist. He had to when Rex attempted to tell him no. They are married now. I just hope my story has a similar ending.