Being in his arms—being around him in general—felt like coming home. It felt like belonging. It felt right. Even when nothing else made sense, he was the one thing that could hold me together.
We parted just enough for him to look into my eyes. His hands cupped my face on either side, his palms holding my head up. “It’s okay, Sunshine. No matter what, it’ll always be okay.”
My voice came out as a squeak. “How?”
“Because I’ve got you.” I watched his eyes and how they focused on me, never straying. The way Crescent looked at me now was nothing like when we were kids or teenagers. Every glance spoke of time we’d missed. Time we’d lost, yet made up for in an unspoken, shared emotion neither of us had yet to name. Was it safety, or was it friendship? Maybe even devotion. “I’m never letting you go, Sunshine. You know that, right? No matter what, I’m never gonna let go.”
I know.
The thought caught me off guard because of the conviction andtruth in it. It made my eyes sparkle with tears I hadn’t known I could shed. Ones not laced with deep, horrific sadness.
The spot between my shoulder blades vibrated with need. The need to show him. The need to unveil the truth. My wings begged for an appearance where they no longer existed, just so he could touch them.
A stray drop of my soul ran down my cheek. It didn’t go very far, immediately being wiped away by Crescent’s thumb. I couldn’t look away from his gaze, switching between each pupil, finding something new in them each time. A new memory, or a new emotion. A new swirl of golden brown I’d not noticed before. Sincerity so deep, it tugged on the tie between us, begging us to come closer.
“Are you okay?” he whispered, his face so close to mine I felt his breath against my cheek.
I gravitated toward him, the wings I thought I’d forever lost trying to take flight, trying to lead me in him. “I don’t want you to let me go, Cres.”
“You know I won’t.”
“Do you promise?”
“Of course I do.”
“Okay.”
The tip of his nose brushed against mine. “Okay?”
My response was as easy as breathing out. At the end of my exhale, the word forced its way through. “Okay.”
This time, it had nothing to do with imaginary wings on my back. I moved forward, closing the distance, brushing past his nose, and swallowing the air he breathed. My eyes fell shut as our lips came together, neither of us moving as waves of colors flashed behind my eyelids. Us, and the world around us. A ray of sunshine and a crescent moon. The stars meeting the sky in a luscious, deep blue meant for a blank canvas.
And when our lips moved in sync, deepening a kiss I’d never imagined having, all the pieces started to come together. There was never anything else I was supposed to paint. There were no ideas, past or future, that could’ve encapsulated something this big.
Our lives, our souls, our lips were always meant to meet.
A boy whose name meant sun, and the freedom he’d been begging for, bound together as one.
Chapter Twenty-Two
There’d always beena reason behind why I never dated. A reason I couldn’t stand the thought of entertaining someone else, even with a friendship. I’d been a loner most of my life with seemingly no explanation.
Suddenly, it all made sense. I was tasting the reason on my lips, taking him in through each one of my senses. A deep, insatiable need to never stop, never pull away held me where I was, keeping me bound with a force I’d never felt. I inhaled through my nose, holding back a whimper. A whimper of relief, yet the need for more. Kissing Elio felt so goddamn right, I realized how idiotic it was to ever think someone else could’ve existed for me.
Slowly, gently, I trailed one of my hands down from his cheek to his neck, just holding him there. My palm fit perfectly, like it’d always belonged.
Elio’s lips felt like rays of sun and tasted like joymaterialized. There was a bit of stubble above his lip where he hadn’t shaved yet, and I knew my beard had to be rubbing against his chin. Our lips captured each other’s on instinct. As if we’d done this a hundred times before, no effort or thought needed.
I never stood a chance. There was never anyone else for me.
When we finally parted, it felt bittersweet. A door neither of us had ever seen before stood wide open, inviting us into a new world. But before the door was a path. An unstable, rocky, thorny path we had to get through first. I knew that, and it felt as though Elio knew it too.
Our foreheads came together, our eyes closed, savoring the moment we held so gingerly between us. I didn’t need to see to know how gorgeous he looked. Every four seconds, Elio would take a breath, each exhale blowing across my skin. Where my palm sat against his neck, I could feel his heartbeat.Badum badum badum badum.
My breathing slowed to meet his, and my heart followed suit. Our own bubble, where nothing else in the world mattered. Not even the shadows I knew were lurking in the corners, taunting me ruthlessly.
I opened my eyes slowly, clinging to the hope that I’d see the real Elio and not some apparition in the shape of him. He was there, staring back at me with some sort of awe in his eyes. I recognized it because I’d seen it before.
