{"id":5586,"date":"2014-08-25T12:00:55","date_gmt":"2014-08-25T17:00:55","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/moriahjovan.com\/mojo\/?p=5586"},"modified":"2025-07-29T16:53:31","modified_gmt":"2025-07-29T21:53:31","slug":"say-youll-go","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/moriahjovan.com\/talesofdunham\/blog\/say-youll-go\/","title":{"rendered":"Say You’ll Go"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"After<\/a>
After twenty years and five children, love just wasn\u2019t enough anymore\u2014until, five years after the divorce, it\u2019s the only thing they have left.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
<\/div><\/div><\/div>Janelle Mon\u00e1e: Say You’ll Go<\/div>\n

\u201cTess \u2026 \u201d She stopped cold at the breath of a whisper, her heart slamming into her ribs so hard she thought it would fall out right there on the table and flop around. She turned slowly\u2014so slowly.<\/p>\n

She opened her mouth to scream at him for ambushing her, but she realized just in time that he was as stunned as she was.<\/p>\n

And he was beautiful. More beautiful than he had been when he was nineteen. More beautiful than he was the night he\u2019d left her. Yet nothing about him had changed.<\/p>\n

His hair was still a mass of long mahogany-red waves past his shoulders. Bunches of hair at his temples had been braided into tiny plaits fastened behind his head. His earrings were medium-sized gold hoops. His stark art deco sun tattoo still spread its rays down along his neck, chin, and jaw. His shirt was blousy white linen floating untucked over oxblood leathers, the ties at the neck hanging loose. His wrist tattoos were on full display. Then she looked at his hands.<\/p>\n

He was wearing his wedding ring.<\/p>\n

She blinked and looked down at her own left hand. There they were: the circuit board wrist tattoo that matched his and the diamond he\u2019d presented to her in an elaborate, public proposal. Because why do it privately when you could put on a show?<\/p>\n

She looked back up at him, knowing all her heartbreak and joy and sorrow and love for him were written all over her face\u2014and it was reflected in his.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis<\/i> is exactly what I wanted to avoid,\u201d Sebastian drawled with great irritation. \u201cIf some people<\/i> had picked up her phone!\u201d<\/p>\n

She should\u2019ve picked up the phone.<\/p>\n

Tess didn\u2019t move\u2014couldn\u2019t\u2014but \u00c9tienne could and did, skirting his chair and striding toward her with that look, the pirate king, the one who wouldn\u2019t be denied.<\/p>\n

She sighed when he slid his big hands around her face, tilted it back, and brought her up to him for a kiss that scorched her soul.<\/p>\n

It was magical. He<\/i> was magical.<\/p>\n

She closed her eyes and opened her mouth, feeling his tongue, so familiar, so talented. Tasting him as he had always tasted with an undernote of Dr. Pepper. She whimpered into his mouth when the pressure lightened, but he only tilted his head and went after her at a different angle. Sensation shot downward, and she moaned softly, ready to spend the next few hours feeling his bare chest against her naked breast, his legs twined with hers, his body inside hers, stroking her and assuaging this ache for him she\u2019d never been able to contain.<\/p>\n

\u201cGET A FUCKING ROOM!\u201d Sebastian roared, standing and pounding the table. \u201cYou two drive me fucking insane<\/i>!\u201d<\/p>\n

They parted. Slowly. So slowly.<\/p>\n

\u201cI did not sleep with her,\u201d he whispered, dropping his forehead on hers, his chest heaving.<\/p>\n

\u201cI know.\u201d That surprised him, and she was strangely gratified.<\/p>\n

\u201cMon c\u0153ur<\/i>,\u201d he breathed.<\/p>\n

\u201cI love you, too,\u201d she whispered back, equally out of breath. Then she gulped. \u201cBut love isn\u2019t enough.\u201d<\/p>\n

He drew away from her, dropped his head back, gripped the back of her chair so hard it creaked. His chest heaved.<\/p>\n

But somebody began to clap. A golf clap. Hushed. Mocking.<\/p>\n

Someone else joined in. Then someone else.<\/p>\n

Her heart was breaking\u2014again\u2014but she couldn\u2019t hide her smile. Nor, it seemed, could he.<\/p>\n

\u201c\u00c9tienne!\u201d Sebastian snapped. \u201cGet your ass in this seat right now. Tess, siddown. Somebody<\/i> has to be the adult in the room. As per usual.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWe need to talk,\u201d \u00c9tienne murmured, looking at her with those heartbreaking\u2014heartbroken\u2014ice blue eyes.<\/p>\n

She nodded. \u201cI know.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cTo a therapist!<\/i> I do<\/i> have other things to do, you know!\u201d<\/p>\n

\u00c9tienne tossed Sebastian a bland smile over his shoulder. \u201cKeep it up. You know we like to put on a show.\u201d<\/p>\n

Sebastian snarled but sat, and somebody began to chuckle.<\/p>\n

He turned back to her. \u201cYou drew those for me?\u201d<\/p>\n

Tess, as in love as she had been at seventeen, could only nod. \u201cI draw everything<\/i> for you.\u201d<\/p>\n

from We Were Gods<\/em><\/a><\/center><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Janelle Mon\u00e1e: Say You’ll Go \u201cTess \u2026 \u201d She stopped cold at the breath of a whisper, her heart slamming into her ribs so hard she thought it would fall out right there on the table and flop around. She turned slowly\u2014so slowly. She opened her mouth to scream at him for ambushing her, but […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[517,318],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5586","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-music","category-tales-of-dunham"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/moriahjovan.com\/talesofdunham\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5586"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/moriahjovan.com\/talesofdunham\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/moriahjovan.com\/talesofdunham\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/moriahjovan.com\/talesofdunham\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/moriahjovan.com\/talesofdunham\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5586"}],"version-history":[{"count":56,"href":"https:\/\/moriahjovan.com\/talesofdunham\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5586\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":16575,"href":"https:\/\/moriahjovan.com\/talesofdunham\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5586\/revisions\/16575"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/moriahjovan.com\/talesofdunham\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5586"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/moriahjovan.com\/talesofdunham\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5586"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/moriahjovan.com\/talesofdunham\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5586"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}