“Exactly one,” he said, stepping close again. “And she’s also the last.”
I flushed, the truth of it anchoring somewhere deep in my chest.
We spent the rest of the morning unpacking, dancing around boxes, occasionally stealing kisses between stacks of poetry and notebooks. When I hung the final sweater in the closet, beside his T-shirts and flannels, I exhaled.
Greyson came up behind me, wrapping his arms around my waist. “How’s it feel?”
“Like home,” I said.
And I meant it.
The rain had started just after midnight, soft and steady against the windows, a rhythm that made the world feel smaller and safer. Greyson’s room, or I guess now our room was dim, the only light coming from the bedside lamp, golden and warm.I sat curled on the edge of the bed in one of his T-shirts, my legs bare, hair still damp from the shower. He was across the room, changing out of his jeans, his back to me as he pulled a clean shirt over his head. I watched the way his muscles moved, how the tattoos curled down his arms like smoke and stories, every line familiar and mine.
When he turned, his eyes softened.
“You okay, Bee?”
I nodded, but he knew better.
He walked over slowly, his hand brushing the side of my face, tucking a strand of hair behind my ear like it mattered. Like I mattered.
“I still have nights,” I whispered. “Where it feels like everything good will disappear if I breathe too hard.”
He didn’t say anything. He just knelt in front of me, eye level, grounding me with nothing but the weight of his gaze.
“I’m not going anywhere,” he murmured. “You can fall apart here, and I’ll still be holding you.”
I reached for him. Not because I needed to be saved, butbecause I needed to feelsomethingthat reminded me I was alive, wanted, and safe.
He kissed me like he meant it. Like every broken part of me deserved worship. His hands moved slowly, reverently, one at my jaw, the other at my thigh, pulling me gently into his lap until we were tangled together in the center of the bed.
There was no rush.
Just breath.
Skin.
A slow unraveling.
He whispered things between kisses;You’re beautiful. I’ve got you. You’re safe.And I believed every word.
When he finally pushed my shirt up and his mouth found my skin, I trembled, not from fear, but from the way it made me feelseen.
It wasn’t just sex. It was having someone know my body so well that even the most minor touches have me coming undone. It was the fact that I was so infatuated with this man, and half the time I couldn’t believe it. I finally feel like I’m where I belong, where I was always supposed to be. It was being loved exactly as I was.
And when I came undone in his arms, I cried. Not from sadness, but from release.
Becausethis, this, was what healing looked like. And I wasn’t alone anymore.
Chapter 34
Blair
It started with an email.
Just a plain subject line,“Your Book Release – Final Shipment Confirmation”, but the second I read it, my vision blurred and the mug in my hand clattered to the floor.
I stared at the screen, heart thudding.
