“It’s not.” Hooking a finger under her chin, I gently guided her gaze up to mine. “Skye, you almost died that day. I saw it. I watched the life drain from your face the moment before you collapsed. You were lifeless when I picked you up.” My thumb touched her bottom lip. “All the color had left your face, and I thought you were dead. I thought I’d lost you forever.”
Tears welled in her eyes as a tightness built in my chest. The memory of holding her, waiting for the ambulance to come as she was dying in my arms had branded me, too.
The people I loved died, and there was nothing I could do to stop it.
“It’s not silly that you get scared. Your body remembers what it feels like to be dying. It needs to heal from that trauma. You’re not weak, Skye. You’ve been through too much and survived. That’s not weakness. That’s resilience. It’s strength.”
Her lips trembled, but she didn’t let a tear escape. “You’ve always been too good to me…” she whispered.
I didn’t know what she meant by that. Before I questioned her, she pointed to the symbol over my heart.
“Your turn,” she said.
Grimacing, I looked down at where the tip of her finger touched the bottom of the infinity symbol. Every fiber of me wanted to keep this for myself. I had never explained any of my tattoos to anyone. They were mine.
But this particular one was a part of her, too. I covered her hand with mine to keep it from trembling.
“This,” I guided her hand so that her finger traced the vertical infinity symbol, “symbolized you.” There was an audible hitch in her breath, but I kept going. “You always stand tall. Always looping through everything. The triangle…” I stilled when her finger touched the tiny triangle in the bottom loop. “That was supposed to be our anchor. The life we never got to live.”
Her gaze fixated on the little shape. Her chest rose and fell rapidly as the meaning set in for her. Her eyes shot to mine. “The baby?”
I nodded, not knowing how she would react. I’ve never known how she felt about the loss of that pregnancy. It had been the reason she’d almost died and I’d always thought she resented me for what happened to her. Part of me didn’t blame her, but I’d mourned not only the loss of Skye in my life, but also what could have been.
Her silence stretched on and my skin heated. Uncertainty and raw vulnerability had me feeling exposed. I waited for her to yell at me. To pull away.
“I’m sorry if that’s hard for you to hear,” I rasped, unable to stand the silence any longer. I couldn’t read the expression in her wide eyes; all I recognized was shock. “But both of you have been burned into me for a long time, and that’s the truth.”
Her hand started to shake, and I squeezed it tighter, pressing it against my chest.
“Fox.” She said my name like it was a lifeline. A tether that kept her above the water.
She leaned closer. So close the tips of our noses touched.
I didn’t dare move. I didn’t dare even breathe. My heart thundered in my chest, pumping blood hot and fast through my body.
“Skye.” I said her name in return, a sound that was more of a groan than a whisper.
And then her lips were on mine.
There was no hesitation in her movements. The last sixteen years collapsed into nothing between us—like we’d never stopped kissing, like we’d never let go of each other.
I forgot everything but the bliss and the fire of this moment. I forgot to hold my heart close. To be reserved. I wanted more of her.
Her mouth moved against mine with both desperation and tenderness. She tasted like the storm, like memory, like every dream I’d told myself to forget.
I lost myself in the kiss that felt like more. It felt like coming home, like finding the place I belonged after wandering for years in the darkness.
My arms wrapped around her, pulling her in. She melted into me like she was always meant to be there—because she was.
God, she was.
She parted her lips for me, and I deepened the kiss like I was starving for her. My tongue swept into her mouth, tasting her, claiming her, needing her to the very marrow of my bones.
Her hands tangled into my hair, crushing me to her as an ache I didn’t know existed eased.
My hand slid lower, fingers brushing her back, her waist, hungry to relearn every inch of her—
A crack of thunder boomed directly overhead, followed by a blinding flash of lightning that lit up the whole room like a camera flash.
