“I love you,” she says, staring straight into my eyes. “I should’ve said it so many times by now. Every time I wake up beside you, every time you look into my eyes or hold me in your arms, every time you kiss me or fuck me senseless, those are the words I want to say. And yet I deprived myself of that pleasure, thinking I might scare you off. But that can’t happen because you keep showing me what I mean to you... with your words, with your actions, with the way you always put me first.” One of her hands glides over my cheek, guiding me closer to her lips. “I love you, Atlas Holt! More than anything in this world, and I want you to know it, to hear it.”
I claim her lips in a hungry kiss, with enough spark for the air around us to catch fire.
“Good!” I say when she pulls away.
Summer is quick to draw back further.
“Good? What do you mean, dumbass? I poured my heart out, and all you have to say for yourself is that? Fucking ridiculous!”
I cage her back into my arms, and she doesn’t fight it.
“I know what you want to hear, but love is a simple four-letter word that can neither describe nor contain what I feel for you. It’s so much more than that. It’s madness and an all-consuming need for you. You tame my monsters, only letting some roam freely, to match your own. There isn’t a corner of my mind you don’t control, both where the light shines and where the shadows reign, not so hidden. I don’t want to see if I can’t see you, or breathe if I can’t inhale you. If all of the above is love, then you’ve carved yourself into my fuckin’ soul, and I’m sentenced to love you for life.”
“Good!”
I cover her grin with another kiss.
“Bear,” she mumbles against my lips. “We should name him Bear. He looks so much like a cub. He’s huge for a puppy.”
“Wait till you see how much bigger he’s gonna get. I’ll make sure he’s trained to protect you.”
“Do you think I need protection?”
“Maybe he should be trained to protect other people from you.” She nudges my ribs before dropping to the floor, letting Bear get onto her lap. “What about my gift?” Yes. I’m greedy. I want to unwrap her.
Summer points to her bag that’s lying on the couch.
As impatient as I am, I open it on the way back, but nothing resembling a gift stands out.
“It’s on my phone,” she chimes in, sparing me no attention while cuddling the puppy on the ground.
I take it out from underneath her birth control pills, which nowadays I treat as the enemy, and pass it on to her.
Three taps on her screen, and my phone pings.
“It’s our first dance. I got the CCTV footage from Link, who had managed to secure it, so there were no traces of your assault on Will. I wanted you to have this as a reminder that though things started in a strange way, the fire was there from the very first moment.”
It’s not a fire I see, but an inferno. We are pieces molded by embers to fit together, and we do so perfectly; there’s no denying that fact.
“I’m gonna show this to our kids one day so they’ll know what to look for in life, not settling for anything less than this fire.” I wasn’t planning on bringing up this topic, but I have no intention of concealing what I’m going to use this for. “You can only top this gift by coming here and taking your sexy dress off.”
“First of all, we don’t have time for this. Second, do you really consider this kid-appropriate content? And third—”
“Oh, we got to a third! You never do that.”
Summer scrunches her pretty little nose.
“Third, you do know I’m on birth control, right?”
“But you won’t be forever.”
A single moment of silence before the corners of her lips curl in the most cautious way possible.
“No, I won’t be.”
The desire to get those pills from her bag and throw them away right this instant is second to none. Yet, a family is built on trust, and she hasn’t given me all of hers.
“We need to go,” I urge her instead.
