I shook my head. “You don’t get to try because the snow won’t let me leave.”
“I’m not saying this has to be now.” He hesitated. “But if there’s even a chance you don’t hate me…”
I stared at him. At the way his eyes begged. At the way his shoulders were hunched like he was bracing for a blow. “I don’t hate you,” I said.
“Then what do you feel?”
“Everything.”
His hand found mine, and I didn’t pull away.
Later, after the sun went down and the shadows stretched long across the room, I sat on the couch with a book I couldn’t focus on while the fire crackled and Kingston moved around the kitchen like he didn’t want to interrupt the peace we’d found.
He poured us each a glass of wine. Brought me mine without speaking. His fingers brushed mine again. The same jolt rocketed through me, but I ignored it.
“Why wine?” I asked.
“It was supposed to be for Thanksgiving.”
“You spent it alone?”
“Every year.”
“Because of me?”
“Because I don’t think I deserve more.”
I swallowed the lump in my throat. He’d already spent years serving time for a crime he didn’t commit, and he was still punishing himself. “You do.”
He looked up so quickly that his gaze met mine before he could hide the hope in his eyes.
I set my glass down. “You do, Kingston. Even if I want to scream and slap you sometimes… I know you didn’t do what you did to hurt me.”
He closed the space between us. I didn’t move.
“You were the only good thing I had,” he said, his voice wrecked. “And I didn’t think I deserved to keep you.”
My breath caught as I stared up at him.
“You still look at me like I’m worth saving,” he whispered. “Even after everything.”
“Maybe because of everything,” I whispered.
He reached out, brushing a curl back from my cheek. My hand found his wrist. Our breaths tangled. Then he kissed me. His lips were slow and reverent at first. Then he pressed harder, taking the kiss deeper. Like he’d waited way too long for this and wasn’t wasting another second.
I gasped against his mouth. My hands threaded into his hair. He pressed me back into the cushions, careful and intense at the same time, groaning when I pulled him closer. There were no storms to blame this time. No danger outside the window.
Only us. Only everything we’d lost. And everything we still wanted.
CHAPTER 5
KINGSTON
I kissedher like it was the first time and the last time all at once. Her mouth moved with mine… hot, hungry, and furious. I couldn't tell where the pain ended and the want began. Her hands fisted the front of my shirt, tugging me closer like she couldn’t get deep enough, fast enough, like she'd been holding everything inside as long as I had.
Fourteen years. Fourteen years of silence, pain, and sleepless nights, all crashing into one breathless moment on a mountain during a snowstorm.
When she pulled back, her breathing was ragged, her cheeks flushed. She stared up at me, lips parted, and in her eyes, I saw everything I’d given up. Everything I still wanted. Everything I could never deserve.
