Despite the self-consciousness that prickles through me at the overt PDA, my pulse leaps jubilantly. It’s this important to him to make a statement of his continued devotion.
When Salvatore eases away, he offers a grin that’s just for me. “Come on, a chroí.”
He hooks his arm around mine and guides me away. The second the closet door is closed, he nudges me up against it.
My startled gasp vanishes into the even more emphatic kiss he plants on me. He pulls me flush against him, one hand on my back and the other on my ass. With desire spiking through my veins, I melt into his embrace.
Salvatore kisses me again, drawing the skillful coaxing of his mouth out until I’m whimpering instead. He draws back only a couple of inches, his hands rising to the sides of my face.
His breath grazes my skin. “I want you to know that you are mine now. Wherever this other version of me is, I’ll just have to beat him down so bad you can’t spare one bit of affection for him.”
I touch his chest. “Tore…”
“You think I can’t? I’ll launch myself across every fucking universe there is to stick it to him.”
“It’s not a competition.” I trail my fingers up to cup his jaw. The truth of the words I’m going to say reverberates through me. “This reality is where I’m staying. I’ve accepted that. And I don’t even know how to be upset about it anymore, because… I already loveyou.”
Salvatore growls his approval and reclaims my lips. He kisses me so hard and long I start to wonder if he’s planningon hooking up right here in Cole and Asher’s basement—and if I really mind.
When he pulls away again, it’s far enough that his bright blue eyes can hold my gaze. “You already know me too. You knew about the cooking, yeah? You took a jab about it when I was hassling you.”
“I’m sorry. I?—”
“No, a shíorghrá. You were putting your foot down. I deserved it.” He rubs the side of his neck. “You know about this too. About how I got the nerve damage?”
My voice fades to a whisper. “Your parents.”
“Yeah.” He bumps his nose against mine. “There’s no one else I’d rather have keeping all my secrets, Elodie. And you came so far to do it. Fate brought you across all the dimensions between yours and mine so you could be here with me.”
The unfettered delight in his words squeezes my heart—and loosens a thread of tension deep inside me.
This whole time I’ve thought of my situation as being all Aunt Daphne’s fault, disrupting what fate gave me.
What if Salvatore is right? What if Daphne didn’t alter fate but was guided by it in her search?
Whatever cosmic will drives all our realities… Does it believe these men need me more than my first matches did?
I still have one more match to talk to, and it’s hard to believe he’ll see our situation the same way.
Twenty-Three
Asher
Elodie walks back into the laundry room with Salvatore’s hand wrapped around hers and an obvious flush reddening the light golden skin of her cheeks. I waver on my feet as her gaze settles on me.
There it is again—that flash of sadness, the tension locking her stance.
I know where it comes from now.
Every time she sees me, she’s been mourning another version of me. I might as well be a memorial to the best friend she lost years ago.
It’s hard to wrap my head around the idea that me and any Elodie Devine were not only friendly but incredibly close, no matter what she’s said about how different her life was. I can’t imagine the Elodie I saw during most of my school years giving half a fuck if I died, if she even noticed the charity case was gone.
But that only makes me all the more sure that thewoman in front of me is telling the truth. From the moment I noticed her staring at me on the green with shock widening her eyes, I knew something was different. This pull I’ve felt toward her—it only started then.
So, the original Elodie would have been my match too, if she hadn’t been murdered? I hate to think howshe’dhave reacted to the news.
Cole should be glad this Elodie’s supposed snubbing is the worst I’ve faced.
