He kept his gaze locked on mine, giving me all the space in the world to stop him.
“I want it,” I whispered.
His hand tightened once at the back of my neck. “You’re sure?”
“Yes.”
The word came out without hesitation.
Something in his face broke open completely after that. Love. Relief. Hunger. Devotion so intense it made my throat ache.
He kissed me deeply. Slowly. Like he wanted me to feel the choice in it.
Then his mouth moved to my throat.
He paused there, every part of him held taut.
And when he finally claimed me, the sensation tore through me so suddenly and so completely that I lost all sense of where my body ended and his began.
Pleasure hit first. Fierce and bright and impossible to contain. Then something warmer flooded in behind it, deeper and more complete than anything I had ever felt. It was him. Not just touch. Not just heat. Him, pouring through me in a way that made every nerve in my body light up at once.
My cry broke loose without warning.
The room vanished.
Everything vanished except the overwhelming rush of being wanted, chosen, held, known.
I came apart in his arms with a force that felt almost unreal, shaking so hard I could barely hold onto him. He did it for me, both arms around me now, keeping me close, mouth still at mythroat, his body braced around mine as wave after wave moved through me.
“That’s it,” he said against my skin, wrecked and reverent at once. “I’ve got you. I’ve got you.”
I could barely breathe.
Barely think.
All I could do was cling to him and feel.
His control finally gave way completely, and he came with my name breaking from him like a confession, like a prayer, like something he had been holding in his body for far too long.
I stayed wrapped around him, trembling, my face against his neck, his arms locked around me so tightly it felt like he was afraid to let even an inch of space return between us.
His mouth found my forehead, then my temple, then the place just beside my mouth.
“You okay?” he asked softly, though he sounded half gone himself.
I laughed shakily, stunned, and happier than I knew what to do with. “No. I think you just rewired my entire body.”
His laugh was muffled against my skin. “Good,” he said, pulling me even closer.
Epilogue
Liam
The cabin feltdifferent with Zoey’s things in it.
It finally felt like a home.
Her books had taken over one wall in the living room and looked like a rainbow. Apparently, color was a system, and I had been overruled. Her mug with the chipped handle lived beside the sink. Markie’s travel perch sat by the window, currently unoccupied because he had spent the last twenty minutes screaming at Bobbi when she arrived, then demanded to be included on her walk to the main lodge. Zoey’s coat hung beside mine by the door. Her boots were lined up crooked. I had fixed them twice.
