She pulled me closer, her legs tightening around me, every breath coming faster. Her hands tangled in my hair, tugging as she kissed me, matching my need. When she caught my lipbetween her teeth and eased the sting with her tongue, I lost it. I wrapped my hand around the nape of her neck. The other gripped her ass as I drove deep. Her hips tilted, and she met my furious pace.
Before I lost control, part of me yelled to pay attention to how fucking right everything about it felt.
I fucking loved how responsive she was. She arched against me, and a wave of lust drove me to go harder, faster until her body convulsed around me, and she cried out.
Two more thrusts, and I followed her. I dropped against her for a second, then shifted, bracing on my arms as we caught our breath. The cool air cut across my back, slipping between us in the space my shift created, waves breaking somewhere in the distance.
We both groaned when I pulled out, and she slid her legs down. I dragged a hand through my hair, still reeling from how badly I wanted her. One touch from Mila could drop me.
I pressed my forehead to hers, both of us caught in the same pull that had always existed.
And when the tension broke, it was all light and silence and the faint hum of the ocean in the distance.
For a long moment, neither of us moved. I felt her pulse against my chest, steadying, grounding. She breathed out, and I caught the sound with my lips—a quiet, content exhale that settled deep inside me.
After, we lay tangled, my shirt bunched under her head, her body curled into mine. The night wrapped around us, stars endless overhead. The roof was hard beneath the blanket, the air cool against my skin, but none of it mattered. She was warm, steady, here.
Her fingers traced the inside of my arm, slow and absent, as though she was memorizing the shape of me. “It feels different,” she murmured.
“Because it is.” My voice came out rough, low.
Different because her hand was still on my chest, steady on my heartbeat. Because she knew I loved her. And I would burn the world down before I let anyone take her. We just needed to make it out of here, get to college, and the world could be ours.
The truth sat heavy in my chest. Protecting her might mean tearing into my own flesh and blood, uncovering things about my family I’d spent years trying not to see. It might mean exposing whatever Elise and her dad were plotting, cutting the strings they kept pulling tight around us. None of that mattered as much as this—her, here, against me.
Our futures felt close enough to touch. And the only one I wanted was with her. I would find a way to make that happen, no matter what stood in the way.
She must’ve felt it—the resolve in me, the promise—because her hand slid higher on my chest, palm pressing over my heart. No words. Just the smallest nod against my shoulder, as if she understood I was all in now.
She tilted her head, cheek brushing my shoulder. Silence stretched, filled with the hum of the ocean beyond town, the rustle of palm fronds in the breeze.
Her hand shifted on my chest, flat against the steady pound of my heart. “I used to think I’d never get this again. Especially with how things were when I came back.”
“I’m sorry,” I said quietly. “For how I treated you. I was pissed, but that’s not an excuse. I should’ve tried to talk to you.”
Something in her eyes flickered, the starlight catching the shine there. “And I should’ve told you the truth before I left. Even if my mom didn’t want me to. You deserved that.”
I shook my head, thumb stroking the corner of her mouth. “We both screwed it up.”
“But we’re here now,” she whispered.
“Yeah.” My voice came rough.
She looked up at me then, eyes glinting faintly in the starlight, the star charm pressed between us.
“Don’t disappear on me,” I said, the words breaking rougher than I meant.
Her lips parted, soft with regret. “I won’t. Not again.”
I cupped her cheek, thumb brushing the corner of her mouth. “Good. Because I couldn’t take it twice.”
Her lips curved then, small and certain. I kissed her forehead, then the bridge of her nose, then her lips, softer this time.
We stayed there, staring at the sky, both of us breathing slower. The stars looked endless, scattered across the black.
She whispered, almost to herself, “It feels like forever up here.”
I tightened my arm around her waist. “That’s what I want with you. Forever.”
