“Chloe.” I started to reach for her, but she backed out of my grasp. My insides writhed with the weight of whatever she was about to say. The lump in my throat reeked of bile, and I had to grab the door to stay upright.
“I’m done,” she said, her jaw quivering. “I can’t pretend any longer.”
“Pretend what?” I managed.
“That what we have isn’t real,” she breathed, and my knees went weak.
“I’m finished being complacent and comfortable and settling for less than I deserve,” she continued, impatience in her tone. “I’m done denying myself true happiness. I’m done being quiet about what I want. I’m so fuckingtiredof being scared. I’m just… I’m just fuckingdone,” she said in an exasperated weep.
Her face scrunched up then, her breaths short, bright eyes denying the tears that threatened to fall down her red cheeks.
“But most of all….”
Anxiety squirmed through my bones, emotion burning behind my face. Her gaze lifted to mine, and I forgot to breathe. A tear spilled over as she inhaled a jagged breath.
“Most of all, I’m tired of pretending I’m not completely in love with you.”
Her voice was high-pitch, hoarse, and quivering. I staggered slightly, unable to form words or thoughts.
“I love you, Gavin,” she wept.
My nostrils flared as I tried to hold myself together. “Did you leave him?” I asked, though I barely heard my own voice.
“Tomorrow,” she said. “I know that’s not what you wanted to hear, but I couldn’t do it over the phone. I packed as much tonight as I could fit.” She rolled the suitcase forward and shrugged slightly. “I just couldn’t imagine another second without you.”
Trembling, I leaned forward, pulled the suitcase from her grasp, and then shoved it behind me, its wheels rolling, rolling, rolling on the wood floor. I didn’t bother looking to see how far it went.
Because all I could hear was her saying she loved me, and I couldn’t handle another moment without her lips on mine.
So, I kissed her.
Unrestrained. Unadulterated. Unapologetic and unequivocal to anything else. I kissed her like I had wanted to since first seeing her back at that social. I kissed her with my entire soul, with every part of me that belonged to her. Without hesitation and without fear. As though we were gravity itself and the universe depended on our love for survival.
The way I wouldneverstop kissing her.
Her arms linked around my neck as she kissed me back. I could feel it in her kiss, too. That she had let go of everything holding her back and was truly mine this time, and that nothing or no one would come between what we had.
I picked her up beneath her ass, lifted her onto my waist, and slammed the door behind us. Greed threaded through my bones. Fuck, I’d forgotten how she molded to my body, and I needed to taste and touch and fuck every part of her.
I stumbled, intent on moving us to the bedroom, but only reaching the kitchen counter before she grabbed the hem of my shirt. I sat her ass on the top, a pint glass shattering on the floor behind us. Though, I barely noticed.
We broke apart just long enough to pull my shirt over my head. She reached for hers as my lips landed on her neck, my hands squeezing her bare sides as her shirt fell to the floor. She moaned against me, her fingers holding my head against her neck, and I sucked the skin over her collarbone, meaning to blister and bruise her until her body read how insatiable I was for her.
Until her body read that she was mine.
“Fuck, Gavin,” she said, her voice pleading. She tugged on my hair and jerked my head back so I could look at her, and when I did, I almost fell to my knees.
Her brown eyes were deep with desire, glistening so perfectly, her pink lips dropped open slightly.
“I need you inside me,” she whispered.
My eyes closed, forehead coming to a rest against hers. “Gods, I need you to say that again,” I managed.
Her lips crashed into mine, our tongues sweeping desperately against one another, and when she slipped away this time, her teeth dragged across my bottom lip.
“I said I need you inside me,” she whispered. “We have every day, for the rest of our lives to live in every fantasy we’ve ever had. But tonight, I just want to feel you. I want you to fill me until I can’t move or breathe from trying to deny my release. I want you to bury inside me until the only air that exists between us is that of our own breaths.”
“We’ll suffocate together?” I asked, making her smile.
