I’m coming. Please, please, hold on.
53
“Iknow there’s so much still to work on in our life.” Keo’s voice brushes against my neck. “But I’m glad we have each other to figure it out.”
He holds me in that same possessive way he always does at night—the way that says ‘I’m not going anywhere’. That I belong only to him, and the world would have to crack in half for us to be separated. Even then, I swear he’d dive into the very core of the planet to get me.
“I’m grateful we found our way back to each other.” He kisses the back of my neck and nuzzles his growing beard against my skin.
“For as long as we both?—”
“There’s no end to this,” he cuts me off while dragging one hand up to my jaw and turning me to look up at him. “I always thought it was stupid to say, ‘As long as we both shall live’. Pfft. Our souls will find one another even in the life after we live this one together.”
He smiles, the one I can see in the moonlight that leaks through the curtains.
I nod. “I can get behind that.”
“Damn right you can.”
Dragging my hand up to his neck, I pull him closer. “I wouldn’t want to navigate this life,or any, without you.”
He moves, turning me onto my back and hovering over me. “You die. I die.” His hair falls over his shoulders, and I reach up to run my fingers through it. “Remember that, sunshine.”
“You live, I live.” I put my hands up to the back of his neck, and tug him closer. “I like that better.”
His soft hum brushes against my mouth. “I’d rather it be that, but…” He places a kiss against my lips. “I can’t go back to a life without you in it. I’ve found my happiness, my home. You’ve filled the space that has been empty for so long, and I refuse to feel hollow again.”
My smile only grows.
“My place is right here with you, forever.”
“Forever,” I murmur before pulling him down to me, kissing the man that I love unconditionally.
They said I’d never go to Heaven, but I could swear I saw the light before the bitter cold woke me.
Not that I expected to go to a place of Paradise after this life, but I wanted to stay in that glimpse of safety forever. A place where I didn’t have to worry, just be with Keo. To not wake to the shivering I can’t control, and definitely not to the person standing a mere foot in front of me.
“There you are.”
My body shakes, and no matter how badly I beg it to stop, it won’t. Both my arms lie sprawled outward before me. Memories from before being knocked out remind me both were popped out of their joints. They don’t hurt; I can’t feel them, which is equally as scary.
I know I’m lying on the deck that’s covered in a soft layer of snow. I’d recognize this place. Keo and I have sat out here so often, I swear we’ve imprinted our asses into the wood.
Michael moves closer and kneels. “I contemplated feeling mycock in your ass or mouth one last time, but I don’t want to mix myself with your family. It’s tainted, just like your brain.”
I try to swallow, but my throat feels frozen over, just like the rest of my body. I’m certain all I have on is shorts.
“It didn’t have to be this way, Ayden.”
“J-Just…” My teeth chatter. “M-Move on.”Why is that so fucking difficult? Why? I don’t understand!
He sighs. “You don’t get it. I think about you all the time. Think about how you’re fucking your family. I can’t… move on.” His head tilts as he frowns. “Not until you’re gone. Then I think I will. No more wondering if you’ll come back to me.”
I shut my eyes and try to shake my head.
“I did try to take care of him before this… just him.” My heart drops to my stomach, and I heave on nothing. “I’d done everything right… set up the recording, timed it perfectly. So many fucking hours of watching him and his squad work. I hadeverythingfuckingRIGHT. He was supposed to die when that explosion went off. Yet, it’s like God was protecting a brother-fucker. Crazy, huh?”
“Y-You…”
