Now I fucking get why Luca turns into a marshmallow whenever Sage wears his shit, especially when it’s his number stretched across Sage’s back.
“Jesus Christ, Blue…” I can’t help the way my voice roughens, or the hunger that spikes right back to life in my gut. “You trying to kill me again?”
He blushes, tugging at the hem but smiling. “It’s comfy and smells like you,” he says, ducking his head a little, and I cross the room to pull him in, arms sliding around his waist.
“Yeah?” I tug him close, nuzzling his hair, breathing him in. “Now I never want to see you in anything else when you sleep here. You hear me?”
He grins, a real, dazzling grin, and I slide my hands lower, over the curve of his ass in my boxers, kissing the corner of his mouth. “Possessive, much?”
“Always,” I shoot back, nipping his lower lip, hands tightening at his waist. “Especially when you look this fucking good.”
He looks up, and for the first time, there’s no fear—only the quiet certainty that this is real, that he’s safe, that I want every part of him, always.
Eventually, I lead him back to bed, both of us warm and loose, the covers soft and cool on our skin. I pull him in close, spooning him, one hand splayed over his stomach.
“You know you’re mine now, right?” I murmur into his hair.
He snuggles closer, tucking my arm more tightly around him. “I’ve been yours since I was fifteen,” he whispers.
For a second, I don’t quite register what he’s said. It sinks in slowly—quiet, but so fucking clear it slices through every leftover shadow I ever carried about us.
I’m a few months older than him, so… Wait—that was the summer with the heat waves and times at his dad’s beach house. The year I moved in. The year I started finding him sitting on the back steps late at night, knees tucked to his chest, camera forgotten at his side. The year I stopped riding my bike alone and started pretending I needed company just so I could have him with me.
“Since you were fifteen?” I repeat, just to hear it again. “You mean it?”
Noah lets out a breathy laugh, a little embarrassed but not backing down. “I do. I was a mess back then. I thought it was a crush, you know? Some stupid thing I’d outgrow when I got older, but it didn’t go away. Not after you left. Not after all the shit with our parents. It’s always been you, Mien.”
I’m quiet for a minute, letting that settle, letting myself actually believe it. I used to feel like a fucking creep when Irealized I was in love with him. I knew it was wrong, but now… Now I know he felt the same way all this time.
I tuck my chin over his shoulder, burying my nose in his damp hair. My hand drifts over his belly, just under the hem of my shirt, grounding myself in the reality of him, here in my bed.
“You have no idea what that does to me, Blue,” I admit. “I thought… fuck, I thought I was protecting you by leaving, and all I did was ruin both of us for four years.”
He shakes his head, catching my hand and threading our fingers together over his stomach. “You did what you had to. I get that now. Doesn’t make it hurt less, but I get it.”
I don’t know what to say to that, so I just hold him tighter, brushing kisses along his hairline, down the shell of his ear, trailing lazy circles over the soft skin of his stomach until I feel him shiver.
“I can’t believe you’re mine now,” I repeat, just to hear it out loud, just to claim it, even if it makes me sound like an asshole. “Really fucking mine. No one’s gonna take you away from me again.”
Noah lets out a shaky breath, and then—because it’s Noah—he laughs, wriggling back against me. “You’re kind of dramatic for a jock, you know that?”
I grin, nipping his shoulder through the fabric of my shirt. “Shut up and let me be sappy. I just—” I hesitate, the words thick in my throat. “I never thought I’d get to be in your orbit again, much less have you be mine, so I’m gonna be annoying about it. Just warning you.”
He turns his head to look back at me, eyes soft. “You’re allowed. I don’t mind annoying, if it means you’re here.” He pauses, and his smile falters, a little uncertainty flickering there. “You’re not… freaked out? That it’s always been you for me? That I’ve never really wanted anyone else?”
I blink, taken aback. “Freaked out?” I let out a low laugh, then turn him onto his back so I can see his face, my palm framing his jaw. “Noah, I love it. I fucking love that you said it. I’ve been walking around for years, thinking I was the only one hung up, feeling like a fucking creep for falling in love with my stepbrother. And all that time, you felt the same way.”
He nods, a flush high on his cheeks. “It’s always been you. I was just… scared I’d never get to tell you.”
The honesty in his voice nearly undoes me. I kiss him—soft, slow, open-mouthed, the kind of kiss that’s more a thank you than anything else. I rest my forehead against his, letting our breaths mingle, my thumb stroking over his cheek.
“You’re it for me,” I murmur. “You always were.”
He blinks fast, eyes shining, and I feel his whole body melt against me, loose and trusting, the tension of the last few weeks washing away. “I love you, Mien.”
I lean in, kissing the tip of his nose. “I love you too, Blue.”
I listen to his breathing even out, his body relaxing by degrees, the last of the tension melting away. When he’s almost asleep, I whisper into the soft shell of his ear, “I’m not going anywhere, Blue. Not ever again. You’ve got me.”
