“You’re an asshole.”
I actually fucking giggle this time. His face comes down towards me, his lips finding mine, pressing hard against mine. His kiss is forceful, but not aggressive. His hand comes up, his touch gentle as he holds onto my face. Pressing my hips up, he laughs as he shakes his head, pulling away just enough so he can whisper to me. “Stop. I want to take my time with you. I want to cherish every inch of your body. Damn it to memory.”
“Why?” I pull back just fractionally more and look up at him, confused.
“Because I’m terrified that I’m going to wake up tomorrow morning and this is all going to be a dream, that you’re going to be ripped away from me.”
“I’m not going anywhere.” I whisper, reaching up and wrapping my arms around his neck. “In fact, I want you to move all of your stuff in here, too.”
His eyes light up as he searches my face. “Are you sure?” he whispers. A smile lingers just below his face, a smile that he’s forcing away, almost as if he’s afraid that all of this isn’t real.
“Yes. I don’t want to waste another second and I don’t want to make another dumb decision.”
“Okay, tomorrow, then, but just know that if the day after tomorrow, the end of the week, the end of the month, you feel different, and you need some space, just say the word. I want you to feel completely ready. And I’m here as long as that takes.”
“I know you are.”
He reaches up, brushing my hair out of my face and just looking down at me. “Tatum…” He trails, his eyes becoming serious as he looks at me and I feel the emotion already locking up my throat.
“Don’t.” I whisper.
“Don’t what?”
“Say something you’re going to regret.”
“Who says I’ll regret it?” He caresses my cheek. “Tatum, you don’t know what you’ve done to me, what you’ve brought into my life. Every single time we crossed paths. For a while, I thought we were just destined to be star-crossed, but then I realized when I pulled up and saw you save my sister by sacrificing yourself, that we’re destined to be together. No matter how much we try not to be, we’ll always find each other, but it scared the shit out of me. I didn’t want to do anything to get you hurt, so I fought it for a long fucking time. I was an idiot. I knew in that moment that—” He stops as a door slams from downstairs, both of us snap our heads to look at one another. “Stay here.” He tells me as he stands up from the bed, I hear the drawer open in the nightstand and he stands up, pulling on his boxers and moving out of the door.
“Zane…” I trail. “Shit.” I whisper out as I push the covers back and fumble off of the bed, stumbling to the floor, but catching myself and standing up. I grab Zane’s shirt off of the floor, pulling it up over my head.
“Zane…” I call out in a whisper again as I peek out of the door, but I don’t see him at the top of the stairs. “Zane…” I whisper as I near the bottom of the staircase.
I struggle to hear his bare feet on the floor as he comes back over to where I am.
“I told you to stay upstairs.” He snaps out at me in a whisper.
“I’m not staying upstairs with this sketchy shit going on.”
“It’s fine. Go back upstairs.”
“Zane.” A crashing comes from downstairs and I jump, grabbing a hold of his arm as he looks back quickly.
“Shit. Stay behind me.” He snaps out as he keeps the gun in front of him. I’m almost surprised, although I know I shouldn’t be, that his hand never once shakes. In fact, I know the only reason he had an ounce of fear in his eyes a moment ago was because he realized I was down here.
I keep a grip on his arm as we continue. I can hear someone walking downstairs.
“Zane.”
“Shh.” He whispers behind himself. “I know.”
We move into the kitchen and I can see the light coming from the hallway that leads down to the basement.
Light streams through the small crack of the opened door.
As I hear footsteps stomping on the stairs, Zane pushes me back behind him, shielding me with his body. “Go. Duck down.” He’s so demanding when he says that it causes my stomach to clench. He nods his head across the room to duck behind the island in the kitchen. Gripping the counter, I kneel, keeping myself just high enough to see over it.
Zane presses himself flush against the wall, his arm stretched out against it as well, pointing to where whoever is about to emerge will have to walk past.
Everything seems to slow down. As the door opens fast, Zane keeps his gun pointed in front of him.
