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Tears flood my cheeks, but they’re evidence of how happy he’s making me with his words.
Even if he’s just saying it right now, because I’m hurting, I don’t care. I let his words wrap around me like a blanket, and I imagine for one second that he means them.
That I could be his breath. His reason to live.
Not exist; live.
“Do you understand what I’m saying to you?” Kevin whispers, sweeping his thumb over my lip while gazing into my eyes.
It’s unnerving, having his attention this way.
“That you like me? Finally?” I ask, daring to be hopeful. “That you don’t care about the age difference or that I’m Ivy’s best friend?”
Despite the dull aches and bruises, my body hums with excitement.
But I can’t allow myself to believe he means any of this.
“Like you?” Kevin chuckles, his tongue sweeping over his lower lip. Which I now can’t stop staring at. “I’ve been a fucking fool.”
Breathe.
Something so simple is so difficult to do when your heart is hammering so hard in your chest you’re sure it’s going to crash through it.
Kevin gazes at me, a small smile playing on his lips.
“I’m falling for you, Shelby.”
Those five words are enough to make the world around me disappear, and I almost keel over.
But Kevin holds me tight.
Keeping me stable.
While making my body disintegrate in his hands.
“How do I know….” I croak out, yearning in my throat. “That you mean it?”
Kevin tilts his head, his eyes narrowing.
“Because I want you to know on the way here, when I thought you were hurt, I cursed myself a thousand times. For not telling you how your smile lights me up or your laugh eases my soul. My fucking damaged destroyed wreck of a soul.”
I can barely breathe. My ears ring.
“Or that just breathing in your smell calms me. How I want you to myself, and I don’t want anyone touching you.”
His eyes drop to my shoulders, and his hand strokes my hand before he lifts it to his lips.
“But most of all, I’ve been scared. Just like you said. Scared of fucking it up.”
“Don’t be scared,” I choke out, reaching out to cup his cheek.
“I’m scared of everything when I’m with you. Because suddenly everything is a lot more valuable with you around.”
I can hardly see through my tears, so instead, I reach for him blindly, burying my head into his neck as he lowers himself to my height.
“I already love you,” I whisper, feeling his grip tighten on me. “I always have, always will, and I need you to feel the damn same.”
This is it, the moment where I’ve laid myself bare. And I’m sure he’s serious, he must be because he just said all of that, and—
