“Yeah." My voice came out rougher than before. "I really do."
His eyes searched my face. Eventually, he must have found what he was looking for because his shoulders finally relaxed. A shaky breath left him. Then he smiled through tears. "I love you too."
For a second, I couldn't breathe. I'd wanted to hear those three precious words for days and had somehow convinced myself I could wait.
Turns out I couldn't. Not even close.
I laughed softly and pulled him into my arms.
TWENTY-NINE
KIERAN
For a long time, neither of us moved.
I stood in Thane's arms with my face pressed against his chest while his heartbeat thudded steadily beneath my ear. The conversation that had shattered me open and stitched me back together again was finally over.
His arms tightened around me, and I closed my eyes and let myself lean into him. I wasn't holding anything back. I wasn't bracing for goodbye. I wasn't waiting for him to change his mind. Instead, I trusted the future he was asking me to believe in.
Thane brushed a kiss against my temple. Then another against my forehead. The simple tenderness of it nearly undid me all over again.
"You okay?" he asked quietly.
A laugh escaped me. It sounded watery and exhausted and completely unlike myself. "I don't know."
His hand moved slowly up and down my back. "Fair answer."
I smiled against his shirt. Nothing about today had been easy. A few hours ago, I had been prepared to lose him. Now Iwas standing in the middle of my apartment listening to the man I loved tell me he wanted a future with me. The shift felt almost impossible to comprehend.
I lifted my head. "I really made a mess of this, didn't I?" I asked.
The corner of his mouth lifted. "You tried to break up with me because you were afraid I'd love you, and someday I'd stop choosing you."
I groaned and covered my face with one hand. "When you say it like that, it sounds ridiculous."
“Baby, it sounds like you were scared." His smile softened. Then he cupped my jaw. “Kier." His thumb brushed across my cheek. "You don't have to be the only person looking out for you anymore."
The words settled somewhere deep inside me. The hurt was still there. The memories were still there. But for the first time, they didn't feel quite so heavy.
I leaned forward and kissed him. Slowly. Deliberately. There wasn't a reason beyond the simple truth that I wanted to kiss him. He was here. He loved me. I loved him.
His hand slid into my hair as he kissed me back.
The kiss deepened by degrees. Not rushed. Not hungry. There was no desperation in the way his mouth moved against mine, no frantic grasping. This was rediscovery, slow and deliberate—the taste of him familiar and new at the same time.
I tilted my head and opened for him, and his tongue slid against mine with a wet, velvet heat that made my knees give a little. My hands found the front of his shirt, fisting the fabric, tugging him closer until there was nothing between us but breath and want.
Thane made a sound low in his throat. Not quite a groan, more like relief. Like he'd been holding something heavy and was finally setting it down.
"I thought I was going to lose us," I whispered against his mouth.
"You didn't."
"I know. I know now." I pulled back just enough to see his eyes—dark, soft, locked on mine. "I'm sorry I didn't trust you."
"You trusted me enough to tell me the truth." His thumb traced my jaw. "That's what matters."
I kissed him again. Quicker this time, but no less real. A promise sealed with heat.
