“What about the part where I said that I love you, hmm?”
She whimpers at my words, and I smile, kissing the corner of her mouth, this time slower, longer. Ella shakes in my hands, leaning in further, leaning into my touch, intome.
Despite the fucked up situation we’re in, despite the throb in my chest, my cock kicks up to full-mast, eager and willing now that she’s here.
We’re alive.
My lips hover over hers. “Look at me,” I rasp. Her eyes flutter open as I slide my thumb over her jaw and grip the back ofher neck. “Or are you asking about when I said you’re mine, Isabella?”
“That one,” she chokes out.
I smirk, running my lips across hers, inhaling her sweet scent.
“Yeah,” I murmur. “I meant that, too.”
And then, she’s kissing me.
Or maybe I’m kissing her.
I don’t know, and I don’t care, but her lips are on mine, and for the first time in my life, I feelwhole. I don’t waste a damn second of this opportunity, using my grip on the back of her head to pull her into me until I have no idea where she ends, and I begin.
There, on a hospital bed in an unknown place, I kiss the love of my life the way I should have in the back of that fucking SUV before our lives went to shit. I should have kissed her so deep, so hard, her lipstick was smeared across my soul, and everyone knew what I’d done—who she belongs to.
Ella moans into my mouth, and somewhere, in the back of my head, a voice whispers that she doesn’t belongjust to me.But then, I remember the way Maddox gave me his,their,blessing to pursue her. The way he taunted me as if she’d never choose me.
But she’s choosing menowjust like I’ve chosen her always.
A thought I’d had out there on that pavement lot flits through my mind again, slamming into me like a ten-ton boulder.
I should have loved her loudly.
I rip my mouth from hers, one hand cupping her cheek, the other keeping her close so she doesn’t get any crazy ideas about leaving me. Her hazy eyes meet mine, and for one brief second, I get distracted by her lust-filled gaze, her puffy lips, her red cheeks. Not from tears, but fromme. Because I turned her on. Because she wantsme.
“I love you, Ella,” I rasp, emotion choking me. “I love you,” I say it again and again, needing her to trulyknow. God, I’vewaited so fucking long for this. I swallow hard. I’m not one to beg, but I’m begging now. “Please tell me you still–”
“I love you so much,” she chokes out, and my heart fucking soars.
But I have to be sure. My lip kicks up. “Like sexy love, right? Not like a brother?” Or a friend, or sidepiece or gay-bestie, or….
She slaps my chest softly, and I wince with a gasp. Ella’s eyes go wide as she frantically tries to soothe the hurt with pets and kisses across my bandaged chest. “I’m so sorry. Fuck, Hunt. I’m sorry. I’m sorry. I’m—”
“Ella,” I chuckle, guiding her face back to mine. I cock a brow. “Answer me, baby.”
“You’re so demanding all of a sudden.” She scoffs and rolls her eyes, but the sniffle she sniffs takes away from her sassiness.
Leaning in, she presses another kiss to my lips, her tongue sliding slowly against my mouth, asking for entrance. I groan, letting her tongue play with mine in a slow, exploratory way.
We’ve kissed before. When we were younger, but I’ve done everything I can to forget those moments. They were forced, and though they made my heart soar in the darkness, they were tainted. Then, just a few months ago, I kissed her at that club, and while it had meant a hell of a lot to me, we’d been shitfaced, completely drunk. Those memories are tainted, too.
But here, now, with my hands cradling her sweet face, hers roaming my chest, my bare neck, threading through my long hair as her tongue slides against mine, it’s different.
It’s everything.
“I love you in a sexy, boyfriend kinda way,” she whispers against my mouth. “A very sexy way.”
Her eyes flick up to mine as she smirks before biting down on my lower lip. I groan, my eyes rolling to the back of my head. Unable to help myself, I palm her ass and grind my erection into her thigh, letting her see just how much I want her. Ellawhimpers, rolling her hips back before pulling away slightly. She has to shake the lust from her mind so she can think straight, making me chuckle and her huff.
We stare at each other for a long moment, and I give her space to find her words, sensing something on her mind. A lot, no doubt.
