She stands there.
Silent.
Eyes locked on mine like she’s trying to see if this is another lie dressed in desperation, or if I really just ripped my chest open and handed her everything I never had the guts to say.
The silence stretches.Tight.Frayed at the edges.
And then she speaks.Her voice is quiet when it comes.
"Then why didn’t you fight for me?"she asks."Why did you let me think I was nothing to you?"Her voice cracks, but her eyes don’t waver. "I would’ve walked through fire for you, Matteo.I fucking bled for you.And all I ever wanted—" she breaks off, swallowing down the ache, "was for you to stay.But you didn’t.You broke me...and left me to pick up the pieces alone."Her hands clench at her sides, fists trembling from the effort it takes to stay upright. "And now you stand here and tell me you love me as though those words could stitch together what you shattered."She laughs, jagged and bitter."I don’t even know what’s worse… What you did to me...or the brutal truth that I still fucking love you, even now."
My chest locks up so hard it feels as if it’s caving in, ribs folding inward, crushing me from the inside out.Because she just said it.The thing I’ve been dying for and dreading in the same goddamn breath.She still loves me.After everything.After the lies.After the blood.After every scar I carved into her skin and her soul.
She still loves me.
It destroys me in a heartbeat.It tears through every wall I built to keep her out.Leaves me standing here, bleeding and desperate and hers.
"I never fucking stopped, Em," I rasp, voice shredded, raw, the words slipping out before I can even think."Not for a second."
“Never stopped… what, Matteo?”She asks.
"Loving you," I rasp, voice breaking around the words, stripped of every bit of armor I spent years building around myself.
I lift my hand and cup the side of her face.My thumb brushing softly over her cheekbone, like I’m scared she might disappear.
"I tried, Em," I breathe, my forehead nearly touching hers."God knows I tried to bury it.I tried to hate you.Tried to forget." My thumb trembles slightly against her skin, and I don’t even care."But it never went away.I mourned you every damn day.And I loved you the whole fucking time."
Her eyes shine, tears trembling at the edges, and fuck, my heart feels like it’s about to tear itself apart inside my chest.
She leans into my touch.Her warmth bleeding into my palm like she’s stitching me back together without even trying.
"I never stopped loving you either," she whispers.
And those four words tear through me harder than any blade, any bullet, any fucking thing this world has ever thrown at me.Because she never stopped.And for the first time in years...I don't feel alone.Not lost.Not hollow.Just a boy who's still in love with the only girl who ever mattered to him.
Her eyes flick to my mouth.Just once.But that’s enough.That one look is all it takes to tear the last thread of restraint out of me.
My mouth crashes onto hers, rough, reckless, starving.There’s no control left.No walls.No armor.Just raw, desperate hunger pouring out of me, pouring into her, like I can somehow fuse us back together with nothing but teeth and want.
My grip tightens on her jaw, angling her head back so I can take more.Claiming her the way I should’ve years ago.The way I dreamed about it every night I had to survive without her.
She gasps into my mouth… it’s the sweetest goddamn sound I’ve ever heard.My other hand fists in her hair, yanking sharp, dragging her flush against me until there’s no space left, no room to breathe, no room to think.
She tastes of defiance.
Of forgiveness.
Of every fucked-up, beautiful thing I never thought I’d get back.
My tongue slides past her lips, stroking, teasing, demanding she yield and she does.She softens against me, like she’s melting from the inside.A desperate little moan that tears the last shreds of control right out of my chest.
"You're fucking mine," I say against her mouth, the words harsh, possessive, savage as a brand.It’s not a promise, it’s a fact.
She kisses me back harder, fiercer, her body arching into mine like she’s been waiting years for this, for me to finally say it, to finally fucking mean it.
I growl low in my throat.The sound ripped out of me as I grip her thighs, hauling her up against me so fast she gasps.But she doesn’t stop me.Fuck no. She locks her legs tight around my waist, grinding her heat against my cock until I’m one second away from losing every shred of control I’m hanging onto.She’s not even naked yet, and I’m already so hard it’s painful.
I spin us around without breaking the kiss, slamming her back against the nearest wall, needing her closer, needing her everywhere.
