And just like that, I snap.I’m sick of him talking to anyone but me.
“You happened,” I spit, pushing his hands off me with a thought.He sways backward with the force.“How could you?”
“What are you talking about?I’ve been locked up in that room, thanks to you?—”
“Red.That’s the color you thought of when I asked you.I heard it.”
His lips part.I wait for a denial, an explanation, anything … anything to make sense of this.I know what I heard, know what I want it to mean, but how can it be true?
Always so unflappable, Sterling recovers.Surprise melts into tenderness, softening the lines around his eyes, mouth.Oh.He’s always handsome, but this … this is new.This is life-changing.
The veil vanishes before my eyes.What was hidden is now on full display in his expression, in histhoughts.It’s too much.
I gasp for air, trembling without any warning at all, and Sterling doesn’t miss a beat.Collecting me in his arms, he pulls me in, and I go, falling down into the safety of him, the surety of it.
He rocks me gently.“I didn’t know how to tell you.You already had someone, and I never want to complicate your life.You mean too much to me.All I want is your happiness, with or without me.”
“No,” I say, lifting my head to lock eyes with him.“There is no without you.Not now.”
He takes a long, deep breath, and even if I couldn’t hear it, it’s impossible to miss the fight playing out in his head.
“You have no idea how much I want … but if it doesn’t work, if I mess it up, I can’t … either of you.It’s too important.You’re too important.”
Lucky joins us on the floor, taking one of Sterling’s hands in his.He places a gentle kiss in the center of Sterling’s palm, whose eyes fall closed.
“I’m not good at this,” he says.
My heart overflows with the rush of longing Sterling feels.
“But I’ve tried to stop loving you, and I can’t.”
“Then stop trying, you beautiful bastard.”Lucky wastes no more time, curling his other hand around Sterling’s neck and pulling him in for a kiss.“We deserve better than that.”
“I know you do.”He turns his endless blue on me.
I don’t need him to say anything.He’s already shouting it from every angle, every atom reaching out for us, practically glowing.It floods the air, fills my lungs with every breath, leaving me no choice except to reach up and touch the source of it, kiss the love from his lips and meet it with my own.
* * *
Someone pass me a tissue.
I don’t want to leave yet.is there more?(go to 84)
go back(go to 68)
“Go!”I scream.
Lucky’s face falls.It hurts him, but I know he’ll do it to save Sterling.
Sterling must know this, too, because he rips his hand out of Lucky’s grip just as another bullet catches the wall by my head.
“Not without you,” he screams back, and time slows to a crawl as he reaches for me.
Our fingers brush as the bullet catches him in the shoulder, throwing him to the ground.
“No!”
I throw all of my power out at once.I have to do something, anything, to get rid of the threat closing in on us.
