It should sound like the punchline to a joke, but it’s not.
I want to ask him about both, but don’t because his mouth meets mine, his kiss reverent and sweet.
“You once told me that you loved me.”
At the reminder of that night, it feels like a fist shoves its way through my chest.
“Mason, I don’t want to talk about—”
His lips stop my protest with another kiss.
“Let me finish.”
“Mason, I—”
Another kiss.
Lust and irritation commingle. “Stop kissing me to—”
He kisses me again, this time deeper and longer until every thought flies right out of my head.
“You told me that night that you loved me.” He grips my face between his hands, his blue eyes firing like sapphire embers in the dark. And then my entire world explodes apart when he says, “But what I never told you was… I love you too, Aria. So damn much.”
I forget how to breathe.
My lungs literally forget how to function.
He said them. The words.
I can’t believe he just said them.
I love you.
Three words that completely destroy me in the best way possible.
Masonlovesme.
A waterfall of tears cascades down my cheeks, unbidden, and I can’t stop them.
“What?” I choke out, not believing what I heard.
Mason sits us up and holds me close, his own tears joining mine.
“I love you.”
Oh god.
I sob uncontrollably as what he said loops round and round in a dizzying swirl.
He loves me.
“Baby, please don’t cry. I’m so sorry for hurting you. If you can find a way to forgive me—” Mason reaches between us and places his open hand over my pounding, overjoyed heart. “—Iswear on my life, I will protect this, cherish and love it, until my dying breath.”
Do I trust it? More importantly, can I trusthim? I search my soul for the answers as I stare into his ocean blue eyes. It’s in those endless pools of deep blue that I find the truth.
“Say it again.”
His gorgeous face breaks out with the most beautiful smile I’ve ever seen. “I love you.”
