Gareth kisses me like he’s telling me a story, each movement meticulous and crafted into something uniquely designed for me.
He kisses me like he’s been waiting his whole life to.
The ride delivers us back to reality way too quickly, our car coming to a stop at the bottom, swaying lightly. Our foreheads rest together, breaths mingling.
I don’t want it to end.
I don’t have a choice.
My heart sinks.
“Welcome back,” the ride attendant greets with zero enthusiasm, grabbing the car so it stops rocking.
I’m not ready to go back to pretending like Gareth is just a friend—like he doesn’t hold my entire heart in the palm of his hand.
My hand finds his before he can lift the lap bar away from us. “Stay in this moment with me?” I plead. “For just a while longer?”
“Forever,” he promises softly, then glances at the ride attendant. “One more time around.”
There’s no line—no one interested in the most docile ride at the fair. The attendant nods.
And as the Ferris wheel starts its slow ascent, Gareth kisses me again.
CHAPTER FIFTEEN
“What the hell was that?” My voice comes out an octave higher than it should, not sounding like my own. I grab onto Gareth’s bicep, forcing him to stop in his tracks.
Slowly he turns to me, his eyes darkened with a turmoil I haven’t seen in years. His chest rises and falls as we stare at each other. The muffled music from the bar setting the backdrop of whatever is about to happen between us.
This could go one of two ways.
Fisting his hair, he exhales a shaky breath, and I drop my hand from his arm once I see some of the tension in his muscles relax slightly.
Then his gaze snaps to mine.
My pulse quickens as he takes a step closer, the gleam in his eye now bordering on predatory, and I’m clearly his prey.
“That was me trying—fighting. I love you, Indy, and I’mso fucking tiredof pretending I don’t.”
His words hang between us—a confession he’s been waiting for years to speak aloud. My chest aches as a thousand things run through my mind. Every sense is heightened, his touch searing against my skin, my own heartbeat amplified in my ears.
The silence stretches, and he buries his fingers in my hair, cupping the nape of my neck. He pulls me closer, resting his forehead against mine, his breathing uneven. “Say something,” he murmurs, voice soft. “Please.”
Emotions swirl within me, a kaleidoscope of things I want to say—want to feel—but am still keeping under lock and key, like an idiot.
But once I answer him, there’s no going back.
I love him.
Of course I do. I’ll never stop loving him, and I’ve spent my entire adult life pining after a man I won’t let myself have.
I can’t do it anymore.
Iwon’tdo it anymore.
“I love you too.” The words are out of my mouth before I can stop them, hanging thick between us.
God, it feels so good to say out loud.
