I nodded, brushing his lips again. “Yes.”
Blankets shifted. His hands were warm and reverent. Every touch, every kiss, every whispered word like poetry in a language only we spoke.
There was only us.
Time blurred. Skin met skin. Hearts collided.
And when it was over, we didn’t speak. We didn’t need to.
He pulled me into his chest and I curled there, limbs tangled, the scent of salt and cedar and him wrapping around me like a promise.
His breath tickled my hair.
“I love you, Gitanilla.”
My chest ached at the sweetness of it.
I whispered it back.
And meant it with everything I had.
Chapter Fifteen
JADE
It wasthe last week of October.
The kind where everything smelled like cinnamon and cold wind and possibility.
Royal Oaks looked like a brochure for East Coast prep: red leaves, brown boots, boys in Patagonia vests tossing footballs between classes.
I should’ve been loving it.
Instead, I was studying like hell for midterms, nursing turf burn on both knees, and pretending I didn’t hear the whispers in the girls’ locker room.
“She’s only here because of a pity scholarship.”
“Leo’s just slumming it for the thrill.”
“She’ll be gone by spring.”
They weren’t original, but they still landed like darts.
And yet…
Leo kept showing up.
He’d bring me espresso shots in glass bottles wrapped in paper towels so they didn’t burn my hands. Let me steal his hoodie when I had 7AM training. Walked me to class like Iwas royalty and he was the secret weapon assigned to protect me.
“You’re not letting them get to you, are you?” he asked one afternoon, pulling me between the stacks in the old library where no one dared spy.
“Define ‘get to me,’” I murmured into his chest.
He kissed the top of my head and muttered, “I want to steal you away.”
I laughed. “To where?”
“Anywhere.” Then, as if a switch flipped, he leaned back, caught my eyes, and said, “Actually—how about Nantucket?”
