I vowed I would always choose him.
Be the man I was promised to become. Stay by his side. Follow him wherever he might lead.
Even though I didn’t know where it would lead, I vowed it that day.
I would not yield.
And as I approached him now, Kingston’s eyes honed in on my expression. Recognition flickered in his blue-gray eyes. The ones I’d know anywhere. The ones I remembered filling with tears as my guilt became too much, and I let them take the memories—take him—away from me.
With a nod of my head, I asked him to follow me, and I kept moving. I didn’t look back, didn’t need to check to know he’d follow me, too.
I went to the only place I could. The place Drake had created in Kingston’s home to serve as a reminder. To take me away from him every day.
And I waited.
He walked up slowly, his hands resting at his sides but twitching with the need to smooth his clothes. To soothe the loneliness that came with being Drake D’Arthur’s heir.
“Landon, are you alright?”
And I didn’t wait any longer. I didn’t second-guess.
I scarcely breathed as I met him beneath the lemon tree, took his face in my hands, and sealed his lips to mine.
He stiffened for one breath, surprise morphing swiftly into relief, tension draining from his body, and his response confirming the truth.
Kingston D’Arthur was mine.
And I was his.
I kissed him the way I should’ve that day, without fear, without the limits set upon us by weaker men who couldn’t love, and I poured every moment missed between us ever since into it.
As our lips fused, tongues explored, and teeth clashed only slightly while we found our way together, I held him as tightly as he held onto me.
His hands gripped my shoulders with the same intensity as I cradled his jaw, aligning our bodies and mouths like magnets finally reconnecting.
The pull I’d always felt toward him—I couldn’t believe I hadn’t guessed. Hadn’t seen this coming. Seen how much more was there.
But now, being parted from him was as inconceivable as it was with Quinn.
I was hers now.
I was his first.
And I’d be theirs.Always.
When we pulled back for air, he pressed his forehead to mine, eyes closed and cheeks damp.
My lips parted with words I had to release, feelings I’d contained for a lifetime.
A truth about myself I couldn’t avoid, didn’t want to hide anymore.
We were inevitable, Kingston and I.
But as the words filtered through my mind, a voice broke through, clearing the haze to echo them over a phone speaker.
“I love you.” Quinn. “Tell the guys…I’ll see you on the other side.”
Her voice, faint and scratchy, pulled our focus at the same time, as Gia’s shock cry forced us to part.
