“I…don’t?”
“No. Not even a little bit. You just need tobemine. Make all kinds of trouble for me. Let me revel in the mischief you curate just to get under my skin. Let me crawl into your veins while you poison mine. I believe you greatly underestimate just how much I treasure you.”
My heart pounds. “I’ve never been treasured before.”
“Allow me to define the word on your behalf.”
My eyelids droop, and I slip helplessly against his chest, feeling his grip tug on my hair before he lets me free. My ear rests against the beat of his heart, and I dwell on the echo of its frantic pace, hammering in harmony with mine. I say, “I’m at your mercy.”
His muscles flex as he crushes me to him. “You’re perfect, Clara. So perfect. Give me more of you. Always. Please. Let me show you what it means to belong to me.”
“I have a feeling…it feels an awful lot likebelonging.”
“You deserve nothing less than safety and belonging. You deserve nothing less…than everything.”
Here, in his arms, anything feels possible.
Even that.
