“Y-you never l-left, d-did you?” She locks her eyes with mine.
“No,” I admit after a long pause and take a step closer, standing chest to chest with her. I admit so much more than she can imagine…that she’ll ever know. No, I never left. I spent every free minute of my time in her shadows. Now…and five years ago.
“No…” Aurora whispers, her gaze never leaving mine, but something flashes in those embers. Something sparks. “The new window, was that you?”
“We can have this conversation later—”
“Answer me!”
I grit my teeth. “Yes.”
“My car is always filled with gas, and the dishwasher was fixed. And…and the ice cream, the fixed porch steps, Emett’s stick that had a hairline fracture last week but doesn’t now. That was all you.”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“Because I can’t leave.”
Her chest starts heaving as a storm starts to unfold. A storm that has nothing to do with the mother nature but those green eyes and a borrowed heart and then she’s everywhere.
In my head, on my skin, deep in my heart, as her mouth meets mine. I’m not sure which one of us moved first. I’m not sure who’s possessing who because all I know is that she’s here, in my arms, her calming scent mixed in with the fresh raindrops wrapped around me and I can breathe…
I draw her cold, soaked body into mine, unraveling right here on the spot in the middle of the storm by her lips, her touch, and the taste of her blood from that bruised lip. From the way those dainty fingernails dig into my arms like I’m her anchor, her savior.
She might not realize it yet, but I’ll be anything for her. I’ll be her anything and everything. Her hopeful morning and darkest nightmare, because there’s no other way. Not anymore. Is she a curse? Or my salvation?
We kiss with abandon, like it will never be enough, our lips sharing an untold story, waving it into a future neither one of us expected, yet can’t stop.
It’s only been a week yet it felt like a lifetime without her.
Aurora’s taste makes me dizzy as my tongue slips past her lips, tangling with hers. Slipping one hand into her tangled mess of wet hair, I hold her nape possessively as my other hand slides over her waist, drawing her into me closer and closer as rain pelts all around us. But whether it’s in acceptance of us or blinding rage, I don’t know and quite frankly don’t give a fuck because her softness surrounds me, soothing all the rough edges the nightmares from the past left in their wake and I want more. I want it all.
Moya… Toljko moya…
And she kisses me back. Her need just as visceral as mine and it wakes something dark inside my heart.
A thunderous roar tears across the skies right before a blinding lightning strike, tearing us apart with gasps and heaving chests, and I see the fear in those green eyes building again. Just like before.
“Oh God…” She rips herself away from me, pressing the back of her hand over her kiss-swollen lips as the rain keeps beating down over us. Aurora takes a step away, murmuring “Oh God, oh God…”
“Don’t,” I say, catching her hand before she has a chance to run away.
“Don’t what?”
“Don’t run again. Because I’ll chase. I’ll chase you till the ends of the earth.”
“Why are you doing this to me, Sava?” She closes her eyes softly and a tear slowly runs down her porcelain cheek. She’s asking about so much more than me holding her right now. She’s asking about something neither of us understands yet we both fear.
“Because I was just fine before I met you, Aurora.”
I was. I made life work.
“And now?”
“And now I can’t breathe if you’re not around.” Her gaze snaps to mine.
“You don’t mean that. You don’t! No one ever means that.”
