For a long moment, there was only the sound of our ragged breathing and the soft patter of rain against the window.
He turned his head on the pillow to look at me. His eyes were soft, sated, full of a wonder that made my chest ache.
He reached out, his thumb brushing the corner of my mouth. “You’ve got a little…”
I laughed, a breathless, happy sound, and wiped my chin with the back of my hand. “Yeah. I know.”
He pulled me into his arms, my back against his chest, and buried his face in the crook of my neck. His body was warm and solid and completely relaxed against mine.
“I love you,” he murmured into my skin, the words sleepy and utterly sincere.
“I love you too.”
We lay there in the quiet dark, tangled together in my bed, the past finally beginning to loosen its grip, the future—messy, complicated, and ours—waiting just beyond the rain-streaked glass.
23
Easton
Rain moved softly against Aura’s bedroom window, steady enough to make the room feel separate from the rest of the world.
The lamp on her nightstand threw a warm circle of light over rumpled sheets, her braids spread across my arm, the curve of her shoulder tucked against my chest, and my hoodie in a wet heap on the floor where she had ordered it to die. Her room smelled like coconut lotion, rain, sex, and gummy candy from whatever emotional support snack situation she and the girls had abandoned in the living room.
Aura lay with her back against me, one of my arms locked around her waist, her fingers moving lazily over the wrap on my knuckles. She kept touching it like she hated it and needed to make sure it was still there at the same time.
“You’re staring at my hand again,” I said against her hair.
“I’m judging your conflict resolution skills.”
“That’s fair.”
“They’re primitive.”
“Also fair.”
“You do know punching people is not a sustainable legal strategy, right?”
“I’ve been informed.”
“By who?”
“Coach. Rider. Cade. Ryan. Briggs. My mother.”
Aura’s fingers paused on mine. “Your mother knows?”
I tightened my arm around her before I answered. “She knows I got in a fight. She knows I hit someone after he said something about a girl I care about.”
Aura shifted in my arms, turning enough to look back at me. The sheet slipped lower on her shoulder, and I forced myself to look at her face because I was trying to be a better man and not immediately become stupid every time her skin existed near me.
I laughed at her worried expression.
“This isn’t funny.”
“No,” I said, looking back at her. “It’s not.”
Her hand went to her mouth, and the sight of her sitting in bed with swollen lips, tear-bright eyes, and guilt crawling across her face made something ugly wake up in my chest.
I sat up too. “Don’t do that.”
