Rain pattered around us, but my world, my heaven, was in his eyes.
"Lead with your actions so I never have to question your words. Love me so loud those who want you would rather go deaf rather than to listen. Love me the way I love you because even an anchor needs to be reeled in when the tide gets too strong."
Honor took a step back, releasing my neck and openly staring at me. I let go of a breath I didn't realize I'd been holding and nibbled on my lip. Despite everything, I still wanted Honor. My need for him clawed at me.
I pushed forward, feeling the pull of him slither up my body. He bowed his head, pressing his forehead to mine. Every nerve in me screamed as our breaths collided, lips hovering. I traced his lips with the tip of my tongue, and the world around us shrank until it was only us.
"Not yet," he murmured, low and controlled.
The silence that followed stretched into…
A promise.
A threat.
A storm of tension that neither of us was ready to break.
"I… fuck… I don't deserve you, Navy," he groaned. His voice was so rough that his face tightened into a grimace. "But I… I love you. I love you more than you'll ever understand, more than I fucking know what to do with."
I felt the tremor in his chest as he confessed something he felt he didn't deserve.
"I can't promise I'ma love you how Wolfe does Chosyn, or Crown does River…" His voice fell apart as he shook his head like he already knew he'd never measure up to his younger brothers. "But I can promise to love you the only way I know how, and that's by… needing you. I need you, Navy. You're the air I reach for when I'm drowning. The grace I don't deserve. The mercy I'ma ask God to have when it's my time to go."
The rain fell relentlessly, pouring over us in a rhythm that matched my racing heart.
"You make me want to stay when I know I don't deserve to. Every day, I question my existence, knowing I don't belong here. But you," he hummed, his voice dropping into a low whisper. "You remind me I'm worth something. You're the pause before the sentence. The semicolon of my life."
His thumb brushed my jaw as if he were afraid to touch something so delicate. Only I wasn't the fragile one.
"Honor," I whispered, taking his face into my hands. "I see you, all of you. The parts you think make you unlovable, the parts you hide because you're scared, they'll ruin everything. I see it all and love it all. I don't know how many times I have to tell you that. I'm not asking you to be perfect. I just want you to be present, honest, and trying. I'm asking you to choose me… to want me even when you don't think you're worth wanting."
His shoulders sagged, like something inside him finally gave up. I wrapped my arms around him, holding him close. He swallowed hard, and I felt the shudder ripple through his chest.
"I can't promise I'ma get it right," he said. "But I love you. I always have, forever will. You're mine, Navy."
His lips brushed my temple, gentle and sweet.
"And if I lose you?—"
"You won't," I promised, cutting him off before fear could finish his sentence.
Every part of me wanted to cling, to melt, to disappear inside him. It didn't matter whether we were soaked or that a storm raged around us.
All I heard was Honor. All I felt was Honor. All I breathed was the heavy, desperate cadence of his voice carrying every broken piece he'd ever tried to hide. Then I felt it. The truth he didn't want to say out loud. It wasn't me he was afraid of breaking. It was himself.
I pulled back to meet his eyes and smiled.
"Let's go home before we both end up sick."
Honor nodded, and I felt it in the press of his chest, the tilt of his forehead, the way his lips covered mine.Homewasn't the place we ventured to at night and woke up to in the morning for Honor. It wasus… the fragile sanctuary we built. The quiet understanding that I'll always be his refuge. Even if the storms that threatened to break us made it over the horizon, I'll be his home… his shelter… his angel amongst the flames.
Honor Gravehart
"Come here, beautiful."
I motioned for Navy to come to me as she walked out of the bathroom dressed in one of my t-shirts. The cotton fabric swallowed her slender frame, and yet, she was still sexy. That was just Navy, tho. Fully covered or not, she didn't need effort to be sexy. She just was. Face free of makeup, there were no blemishes in sight. Just soft skin and tired eyes that held a fire I'd yet to extinguish. Navy came to me without a fight, stopping between my legs.
"Are you okay?" The question brought worry lines to her forehead that I wished I could erase forever.
