Page 126 of Wilder

Asher turned then, his face tilted up toward mine while his eyes caught the light from the sun spilling in from the grand window behind the table.

There was something different in that expression of his, steadier than the broken pieces he’d tried to hold together when we were falling apart. His lips curved into a soft smile, one that tugged at my heartstrings.

It sunk deep into me, curled warm in my body and radiated through me.

Happiness.

Real and uncomplicated.

It wasn’t loud or showy. It wasn’t the kind of joy that came with fanfare or a spectacle that had heads turning and people gasping in surprise.

It was the kind that came when you finally got to breathe easy again. When the person you’d been waiting for finally found their way home to you.

This time we’d found our way back to each other.

I’d never let go again.

CHAPTER 33

Asher

Wilder’s house was quiet when we finally retired back to it later that evening.

Most of the lights had been turned out hours ago after his mother had shuffled off to bed, the only glow now coming from the soft, amber lamp by the bedside. Outside the open window, crickets sang their lullaby into the darkness and the faint scent of hay and manure drifted in on the breeze floating in.

Inside, everything else was still except for us.

Wilder stood at the foot of the bed while I lounged up by his pillows. His eyes were locked on mine like he was still trying to believe I was really here.

That I’d come back. That I’d chosen him.

I found it too endearing not to reach out for him, beckon him closer until he wrapped his hands around mine and I could tug him down with me.

He didn’t need to say anything to me. I saw all I needed to in the way his chest rose and fell with every shaky breath he let out as he touched me, how his fingers teased and touched every inch of my body until there was nothing left for him to explore.

I crossed the distance between our mouths slowly. Not because I was unsure but because I wanted to savor every second of it. Every inch that brought me closer to the person I should’ve never allowed to let me go.

It had been stupid not to knock some sense into him that day, to crumble without fighting for what we both obviously wanted. The days after had been a blur I barely remembered, that haze of sadness pushing everything about but the dull pain left behind by my shredded heart.

Now, though, I’d been stitched back together. Made into something new that contained not only my own heart but Wilder’s as well. He’d given himself over to me, allowed me to take the shards from his own heart and weld them together with mine.

Right before our lips met, I lifted a hand to his cheek, brushing my thumb beneath his eye.

“I love you,” I said, barely above a whisper.

His breath hitched, lashes fluttering.

“I needed to say it,” I continued. “Before anything else. I need you to know I mean it. That I’ve felt it since long before I was brave enough to admit it.”

Wilder didn’t answer at first. He just leaned forward, pressing his forehead against mine, our breaths mingling in the space between us.

We stayed like that for a moment, drinking each other in.

“I love you, too,” he whispered back, voice thick. “Even when I pretended that I didn’t. Even when I was trying to push you away and failed spectacularly.”

I slipped my hands beneath the hem of his shirt, fingers grazing his warm skin. “Don’t push me away.”

He shook his head, then raised his arms so I could lift the fabric over his head and toss it aside. “Never ever again.”