“Do you trust me?” I ask, my voice hardly more than a hoarse whisper.
Her head snaps to the side, and her soft green eyes lock onto me. “Of course,” she breathes.
Nodding, I jump out of my Jeep, rushing around the hood to open the door and help her down. She’s in nothing more than my t-shirt, a pair of tall socks she found in the glove box, and the fucking tiniest pair of panties if the amount of bare skin I touched when I picked her up is any indication.
I lead her to the stairs that Creed had built down the cliffside and lift her into my arms when we reach the bottom, carrying her to the smooth rock that serves as the perfect perch over the lake. She shivers the moment I set her down, and it has me whipping my hoodie off over my head and pulling it over hers.
She sighs contentedly and lifts the baggy material to her nose and inhales deeply, her eyes falling closed.
“Sit with me?” I ask timidly, lowering myself on the ledge. After kicking off my shoes, I offer my hand to her. Just as I dip my feet into the cool water, she takes my hand and joins me. My heart beats faster when she chooses to sit close enough for our shoulders to press together.
“What is this place?” she rasps, her fingers playing with the frayed hem of my sleeve as she glances out at the water that sparkles in the moonlight.
I lean into her. “Creed bought this place when we needed somewhere quiet to escape after the noise of the concerts. Says he wants to build a home to retire here.”
“Can’t say I blame him,” she agrees. “This place is beautiful.”
“It is.”
She looks up at me, and even in my peripheral vision, I can see the unshed tears welling and glistening in her eyes. It causes my heart to squeeze painfully in my chest.
“You were going to leave,” she breathes, but it sounds so broken. I can’t help but meet her eyes, punishing myself by looking at the aftermath of the damage I’ve yet again caused. “You were going to leave me, Ri. Why?”
I swallow thickly, a lump forming so heavily in my throat that it threatens to choke me. “When you’ve been treated like you’re a disease your entire life by the one person who’s biologically designed to love you, you’re bound to believe it at some point.”
“But she’s wrong?—”
“Is she, though?” I laugh, but there’s no humor backing it. “Because I can’t seem to fight my own demons enough to stop them from hurting you, too, one way or another. And if I can’t slay them, then why the hell would I stick around and let their poison get to you?”
She rears back, her brows scrunched in confusion and hurt. “So your best option was to just up and leave in the middle of the night without so much as a goodbye?” She shakes her head, the buildup of tears falling freely now. “Not a fuck you? Piss off? See ya never?”
“Collins…”
“No,” she cuts me off, shifting sideways to face me before cupping my jaw between her delicate palms. “You don’t get to run away. Especially not when it has to do with your fucking mother, Riley.” She scoots closer. “She is the one with the major malfunction if she couldn’t look past her own problems to see just how perfect and beautiful you are from the inside out.”
I try to shake my head, but Collins is right there, holding me steady. “You talk about demons as if mine aren’t sitting on myshoulders, ready to ruin my day, too. But you know what keeps them at bay?” She smiles, but it’s sad and sweet all at once. “It’s you. It’s Creed. It’s Asher, and Blair, and Bear, and the entire family that we’ve built around us. You and I went through hell together, and we came out on the other side. Alive. Nobody can fight alone, and it’s okay to lay your burdens down so that we may hold them up.
“Because you are not a burden, Riley. You are the calm that I look for in the chaos. If Creed is my night, you are my day. Some people get lucky to find their one great love in life.” Her smile widens. “I’m the luckiest because I’ve found two.”
I reach up and softly grip her wrists, my thumbs gently stroking over the scars that cover her forearms. I can’t help but smile through my own tears and tease, “Creed and peanut butter and banana shakes…with Oreo?”
She shoves me playfully and laughs, and the delicate, broken sound is a balm to my bruised soul.
“Can I kiss you, Snow?” I blurt, feeling as if I may expire if I don’t.
“You never have to ask,” she says as she sobers up at my question. She leans in and brushes her nose along mine, her sweet, warm breaths fanning across my face. “But yes, please kiss me.”
It’s all I needed to hear before pulling her to straddle my lap as I cup her face. I take a moment, pressing my forehead to hers, and just breathe her in, reveling in the fact that she’s mine. Berate myself for being so stupid for thinking I could ever leave her behind. “I love you,” I choke out, nipping at her lower lip.
She whimpers softly, and it has me losing all thought.
“I love you so fucking much…” I don’t even truly finish the words before my lips claim hers in a hard kiss. The moment my mouth meets hers, it’s like coming home.
I’m gone for her. I always have been.
She calls me her light, but there is none that shines as bright as she does. I love her with all that I am, and I show her with every press of my lips against hers. Every stroke of my tongue. Every groan.
Collins nips at my bottom lip, the sweet bite of pain causing me to whimper into her mouth. My fingers tangle in her snowy waves, and I completely lose myself to the beautiful girl in my lap.
