I blink. “Crying in my what?”
“Nevermind. The point is, you two belong together.”
“I’ve always been crazy about her.”
Piper smiles. “You still love her.”
There’s no question about it. “I never stopped loving her, if I’m being honest.”
“Does that mean you’ll be walking down the aisle again?”
“Fuck yeah,” I say without missing a beat. “I’d marry her tonight if she’d have me.”
Both women squeal, bouncing on their toes.
“Have you told her?” Sarina asks.
I scoff. “That I want to marry her tonight? Um, no. She’d think it was wedding fever talking and all her stupid doubts would creep back in.”
“Fair point.” Piper laughs. “But have you told her that you love her?”
“Not in those exact words . . .”
Piper throws up her hands. “What, are you waiting for a meteor shower!? A solar eclipse?”
“Life’s too short, Patton,” Sarina says, squeezing my arm again. “You’ve already lost so much time; don’t waste any more looking for the perfect moment.”
They’re right. What the hell am I waiting for?
My hand trails down her arm, fingertips tracing the tattooed designs there, as my mouth finds the shell of her ear, feeling her shudder in awareness. She knows there’s only one person whowould dare to touch her like this. “Have I told you how beautiful you look tonight?”
Her hips sway, pressing against my growing need. “Not in this hour.”
I pull back her shoulder-length hair, brushing the curve of her neck with my lips, and feel goosebumps rise over her soft skin.
The ocean breeze mingles with the perfume of flowers decorating the dance floor and the faint smoke from the tiki torches drifts through the air. But I can’t smell anything but pomegranates, sweet and enticing.
“Then let me remind you. You are the most devastatingly gorgeous woman, and the only one who owns me completely.” My arm curves around her, my palm covering her belly protectively. “I love you, Little Borealis. I’vealways only everloved you.”
A soft gasp falls from her lips as Nisha spins in my arms. Her hands glide up to cup my jaw as her eyes bounce between mine like she’s wondering if she heard me correctly.
I’m aware of the eyes on us and the soft squeals leaving her friends’ lips, but none of it matters at this moment. For all intents and purposes, no one else is even here. We’re all alone under the dark painted sky, so much like that night we climbed a hill in Boston to chase the rare flickers of the Aurora Borealis. That was the night I knew no one could ever own my heart the way she does.
“You love me?” Her sweet breath skims my lips.
“I never stopped, and I never will. I love you more than life itself, baby. Living without you was sheer torture, and it’s a hell I won’t survive again.”
Her eyes pool, her chin trembling as she nods.
“I don’t ever want to be without you, Nisha. Not years, not months, not even a moment. I’ll choose you over everything else, myself included.”
She shakes her head. “I don’t want you to. I want you to have your career, your ambitions. I just wanted to see some . . . balance.”
“And have you?”
She nods, holding my gaze silently for a moment. Her fingers trail through my hair as she rises on her toes, bringing our lips closer. “I love you so much, Patton Pierce. I’ve never known a moment where my heart didn’t beat just for you.”
Fuck, I want to sob, to drown in her arms. But instead I capture her lips with mine, pouring all the words inside my chest through a kiss. It’s desperate and consuming, the kind that tastes like years of missed “I love yous” and vows I want to relive again.
