Full-blown sob, choking, gut-wrenching whimpering as my legs give out from underneath me, and Levi’s arm suddenly wraps around my waist.
My cheek is pulled gingerly into his warm chest as I cry uncontrollably and unabashedly.
I want to stay here for the rest of my life.
I never want to wake up if this is a dream.
“C’mon,” he mutters, his deep tone rumbling against my eardrum, sending a comfort through my body I haven’t had in days. “Don’t cry, Astor.”
I can’t.
Gripping the soft fabric of his tee, I feel the cotton material underneath my fingertips, so I squeeze harder. My brain can’t fully comprehend how this is even real. Howthisis even happening.
“Why?”
It’s all I can get out. It’s all I want to know right now.
I was slowly dying inside. Each breath without him felt like a betrayal. I felt as though I was on borrowed time, and I wanted to hand it back so I could be with or see him again.
“I didn’t want to. We have unfinished business, you and I.”
Prying my eyes open, I reach around my head for his hand and lace my fingers with his. Still holding on to those greens I want to die looking into when it’s my time to go. “I’ve been losing my mind without you. You don’t understand.”
“I know.” His face is soft and gentle against all the black features illuminating his face. I silently wait for him to start chiding me for everything I’ve done, but it never comes. He just regards me as if he’s been waiting to see me again, too. “Not even death can keep me away from you, Astor,” he mutters, sending a soothing and radiating chill down my spine. “There’s still so much more I want to do with you.”
My lips part to say something, but no words come out.
I’m beyond them at this point.
Everything I needed, it’s right here. All muscle and ink, South Shore, through and through. My best friend and the first man I loved—besides Dad—standing in front of me.
It’s when the invisible gray line fades between us.
Best friend and ride-or-die. The relationship we’ve always had and the relationship that never formed.
Rising on my tiptoes, Levi already knows where this is going, and he meets me halfway in a crazed kiss that sends a shrill of lust coursing throughout my body.
I’m swept up in his meaty arms within the next second. My thighs wrap tightly around his waist, earning a grunt from his throat before his tongue demands entrance and drowns me in all the different shades of affection I hold for him.
The ones I’d known before he hit puberty and his voice got deeper. When girls at school would flock around him like he was hot shit because he was.
Except it didn’t changehimand whatwewere.
Levi and I have always been the constant. It didn’t matter what the other one did, the other was riding it out whether they wanted to or not.
It wasn’t a choice.
We had to do it.
Our souls were linked a long time ago. Heaven, Earth, and now, even death, couldn’t keep us apart.
It’s like he and I can’t be separated because it would ruin the world.
My stomach somersaults in all directions. Knocking into each other and laying the groundwork of some meaning I don’t think I’m fully gripping.
The full prospect of what I’ve denied and never dared to fully navigate.
My ass is mercilessly plopped onto his trunk as Levi forces my legs to widen so his body fits between them.
