He touched her chin and lifted it until her eyes met his. "Can you believe me?"
Seaton blinked back tears. "If it had just been words," she admitted, "I don't think so. Words," she explained, have been used against me in the past. They've also been used to make me comply."
She felt him tense a little under her and against her side.
She touched her hand to his cheek, sweeping her thumb against his skin. "But you show it to me every day. You show me that you care. You do things for me. You help without asking for anything in return. Loving you is easy, Sam. I haven't been able to admit it out loud until today, but the feelings for you? Needing to be near you as much as I can? That's natural.
"It's like breathing. And since I've known you, I haven't felt like I've been underwater."
CADDO
Even though they were surrounded by his friends and his firehouse family, he felt like they were almost alone. Just the two of them in the world.
Nothing outside of their tent mattered.
"Loving you," his words felt like the sweetest kind of echo, "is just that easy for me. When I saw you for the first time, I wanted more. Talking to you, I want more. Touching you," he leaned in and touched a kiss to her lips, "makes me burn to touch you more."
When he leaned back, he saw her eyes searching for his. "Yeah?"
He nodded, but it was the barest of movements.
"I want to kiss you, Sea. I want to love you." He leaned in and whispered into her ear. "I want to make sure that you never question how much I do."
"And I worry that I'll say or do something that you'll find unforgivable."
"Unforgivable? Hardly. Even if you tried to piss me off," he smiled and touched a kiss to her temple, "I'll just love you even more."
She shook her head. "It's still so hard to believe."
He kissed her again. "You will, Sea. Over time you'll learn to see the real you instead of what you were told to believe."
" I want to believe, but sometimes I hear... other voices and all of those worries come flooding back."
"Then come to me, Seaton. Or if I'm on shift. Talk to May. Or anyone from the firehouse and their families. They'll tell you. They'll be your back up and mine. And someday, you can do the same for them. Because that's who you are, Seaton. You're a good person. Even after all the shit that was done to you. All of the love that was held back from you by people who should have loved you the most. You still give to others not because you want something back from them. It's because you want to make them happy. That speaks volumes."
"Volumes," she smiled and he felt her lean into him. "I've always wanted an encyclopedia. All of those volumes."
She said the sweetest things at the strangest times. "Seaton?"
"Hmm?"
He met her gaze and leaned in until they were barely an inch apart.
This time she leaned into his touch from the first moment.
"I'm going to love you so much that you'll have all of the volumes you want and then some."
"Yeah?"
Her eyes were bright and wide, shining in the soft light of his phone diffused by the tent walls around them.
"Yeah. Just you wait and see. This is how it's going to be between us, Seaton. Volumes of love."
She turned, wrapping both arms around his neck while her lips pressed against his.
They kissed until he was afraid that she'd wake up the others surrounding them.
He'd let her make all the noise she wanted when they got home.
