“Hayden…”
“No.” His forehead crashes against mine while his grip tightens around my waist. “You are mine, Firefly.”
The words wreck me instantly.
“Do you understand me?” he snarls softly. “Mine before prison. Mine after death. Mine in every fucking lifetime they try to rip us apart.”
A sob catches in my throat because, God…
Nobody has ever loved me like this.
Nobody ever will.
But love shouldn't feel this dangerous. Shouldn’t feel like standing too close to a wildfire knowing it’ll burn you alive eventually.
“You can’t say things like that,” I whisper brokenly.
“Why?”
“Because I still love you.”
The confession hangs between us like something holy and horrifying all at once.
His breathing stutters. Then his hands slide up my throat gently. Like he remembers every inch of me.
“I never stopped loving you,” he whispers back. “That’s the fucking problem.”
There it is…
Because love like ours was never soft. It was a wildfire.Beautiful. Destructive and impossible to control.
“Do you have any idea,” he says quietly, “what it did to me seeing you with Brayden?” His hand gently brushes my cheek as I lean into him.
“You think I wanted him? Or that I had a fucking choice in the matter?” I seethe, and his hand leaves my face only to drag into my hair pulling gently.
“He touches you?” he asks. The question comes out rough, and I look away. He curses under his breath, then pulls away, dragging a hand down his face. “I’m going to kill him.”
“No.”
“Yes.”
“Hayden, please,” I plead, and his eyes slam into mine again, and there it is.
That unbearable thing between us.Love. Raw, ugly, and all consuming.I hate how badly I still want him.
Because standing this close to him feels like every lonely piece of me finally coming home. The smell of him. The warmth of him. The roughness of his voice. It’s muscle memory. My body remembers him better than my mind ever could.
“I missed you,” I whisper before I can stop myself.
He closes his eyes like it physically hurts him hearing that. “Don’t,” he warns.
“Don’t what?” I huff.
“Say shit like that when I’m trying not to lose my fucking mind,” he says as a shaky breath leaves me.
“Maybe I want you to lose it,” I say as his eyes open slowly.
And God, the hunger in them nearly brings me to my knees.
