CHAPTER NINETEEN
ETHAN
My heart was beating in my ears. Loud and unrelenting.
Each thump echoed as I kept looking down at him—at Sebastian Langley, on his knees, for me.
I’d asked for it, but never in a million years had I imagined it would come with those words. With this piece of himself I’d never truly believed he would give me. Not like this. Not willingly.
I love you.
He wasn’t terrified, and that was the thing. His shoulders had eased, just slightly. His eyes stayed locked on mine, like something heavy had finally been set down. Like he’d said it—and could finally breathe.
There he was, waiting. Waiting for me to react. To acknowledge what he’d just done.
And all I could do was stare through the pounding of my heart.
My lips were still tingling from his kiss. I could still taste him—smoke and heat and us, lingering on my tongue. Every instinct in my body told me to move. To close the distance.
Experience kept me exactly where I was.
“You love me?” The words slipped out, disbelieving.
“Yes,” he said, without hesitation.
“I don’t—” I stopped, not even sure where I’d been going with that.
Sebastian’s palms rested on his thighs as he sat back on his heels. “Please forgive me.” Moonlight caught the sharp lines of his face, softening him in a way that made my chest ache.
I love you.
“Please give me a chance to make this right. To prove to you how much I mean it. How much I need you with me.”
He was actually begging.
I love you.
My heartbeat sped up, each thud crowding the next, chest rising and falling too fast. My fingers tingled with the urge to touch—to take—tofeel.
“Please…” The word came out on a breath, quiet and wrecked.
He loves me.
My body moved before my head could catch up. I crossed the distance in two steps, hands fisting in his shirt, in his hair, hauling him up as I dropped on him and caught his mouth in a bruising kiss. It felt like impact—like collision—like every second I’d spent holding myself back finally snapped.
His breath left him in a broken sound against my lips.
I kissed him like I needed to feel it in my bones. Like it had to hurt a little, just to know it was real. Everything blurred into warmth and pressure and the persistent pounding of my heart in my ears. The world narrowed to the slide of his mouth against mine, to the way his hands tightened like he was afraid I’d vanish if he let go.
I didn’t think.
I couldn’t.
I just kissed him back—hard and deep and desperate—like saying yes without words. Choosing him all over again.
His hands found my waist, pulling me close, sliding lower until they slipped under my thighs. I nodded frantically into the kiss, and he pushed up from the floor. My legs locked around his hips, holding myself there as he carried us into his bedroom without breaking stride. The terrace door clicked shut behind us, keeping the warmth in.
As soon as my back hit the bed, I fisted my hands in his shirt and hauled him down over me, not giving either of us a second to think. Nobody was going to slow this down. Not now.
