Every thrust is deliberate, hitting every spot so hard, that it makes me see every single memory we’ve had together, blended into one, until it’s just us.
The heat builds until there’s nowhere to put it, and we fall apart together, his name on my lips, both of us completely lost in each other.
• • •
“Say you love me again,” he breathes, his hips rolling into mine.
“I love you,” I moan. “God—I love you.”
His grip tightens, and he moves harder, faster, like my words have unlocked something primal in him.
“Fuck—Ro,” he says, his voice low and rough against my skin. “You’re mine.”
And in that moment, I know he means it. Completely and utterly.
• • •
After — he doesn’t leave.
He pulls me in from behind, his arm heavy across my chest, his face against the back of my head. His heartbeat against my spine. Slow. Steadying.
I close my eyes.
CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX
EIGHTEEN YEARS OLD
• • •
We’ve been going on a lot of dates.
Like we’re making up for lost time.
Because we are.
I’ve done the math.
It’s a lot of food, movies, and sex.
This surprised me at first.
I thought Cassian would hold back in public.
That he’d keep a careful distance in the daylight, the way he always kept careful distance, and only let himself be real in the dark of my room with the window closed.
He doesn’t.
• • •
He holds my hand in parking lots.
He sits on the same side of the booth.
He puts his arm around me without looking around first to see who’s watching.
He kissed me in the middle of a CVS last Tuesday for absolutely no reason.
Just because he felt like it.
