I claim him again, one hand sliding down to his throat, my thumb grazing the rise of his Adam’s apple.
“You were always meant to be mine, and I should’ve been selfish.”
“Keo…”
His arms move up and over my shoulders to encircle my neck, I think, but a fire burns across my back. I’m incapable of stopping the flinch and hiss of pain.
He jerks back instantly, hands flying off me. “Oh, fuck. Shit, I’m so sorry.”
Damn these burns.
“It’s fine.” I still have him pinned against the truck, leaving him nowhere to go. His palms press against my chest, sliding slowly upward until they rest at my neck.
“I need you to promise me something.”
I thread my fingers back through his soaked brown hair, gripping just enough to tilt his head back as I lean toward his throat.
“You need to. Because I can’t do this with you if you don’t.”
His words catch me off guard, halting me mid-movement.
“I promise,” I breathe. Whatever it is, I don’t care. He could tell me to shit with the door open, walk naked through a church, or kill a man, and I’d swear to it.
There isnothingI wouldn’t do for him.
“You’ll never put anyone’s life ahead of your own.”
That wasn’t what I was expecting. My brows knit as I lean back, searching his hazel eyes. They’re alive with everything—the deep green of the forest, the rich brown of the earth. The beauty of a world I’d almost left but stayed because of some hope I’d see him again.
“You said you sent Corey to the third and fourth floor because it was safer.” His voice softens, but it cuts like glass. “You matter. Your life matters. Promise me, because I can’t lose you again, and I can’t leave Alysa.”
My eyes go wide. “Ayden?—”
“Just promise me, Keoni. It’s not that hard.”
“I promise.”
The only life that is worth more than mine, is Ayden’s. And with the way he said it, the way he all but admitted he’d follow me into death, I know now my life has to hold the same impossible value as his.
His hand moves to the back of my neck, where he drags his fingers through my hair. “If I have to stay here, and live in thisworld thatsuckssometimes, so do you.”
I can’t help but smirk. “Okay.”
That handsome smile returns to his lips that I want to devour again and again. “Stay here with me.”
I nod. “Together.”
“Together.”
My mouth crashes back onto his, the kiss deepening instantly. His tongue tangles up with mine, causing me to groan and suck on it before dragging him away from the truck.
“Let’s go inside.” My arm hooks around his midsection, pulling him flush against me as we stumble across the soggy ground. I’ve made this walk a thousand times and even doing it backward feels natural with him in my arms.
The moment we hit the stairs, he yanks me down into another kiss. I oblige, fumbling blindly for the door handle. The rain has soaked us through, and when the knob refuses to cooperate, I abandon it altogether and go for his shirt instead.
Buttons pop free as I rip it open—patience be damned. He helps me shrug it off, never once breaking our mouths apart.
That makes me grin. Seems we’re both just as desperate for one another.
