Page 19 of Stars Like Confetti

“Please don’t say you’re sorry,” I pleaded, scrubbing tears from my eyes. “You couldn’t have done anything to stop them.”

“I could have protected you!” Theo cried, openly sobbing. Tears tracked down their cheeks, paled to a color that made me worry they’d be sick. “The night we got caught I could have taken you and⁠—”

“Let your parents get charged for harboring a runaway? T, you were a teenager. We were teenagers. Neither of us deserved that.”

“I looked for you,” they confessed. “For years I looked for you.”

“I can’t tell you how many times I wanted to find you, but it was too risky. I had to lay low until I turned eighteen. Then my parents couldn’t get the police involved. By then, I was sure that you moved on.”

Silence fell between us. Theo held onto me tightly, like I’d slip right through their fingers. I allowed it. I sure as hell wasn’t going to complain, so I laid on their shoulder, feeling the hitch of their chest as they cried. Tears dampened my hair and trailed down my cheek, but I didn’t care. Theo never cried, so I let them; I let them work through every gut-wrenching and life-changing emotion they must have been feeling, because I could only imagine what would be going through my mind if the roles were reversed.

I didn’t have any tears left to shed for what I went through. I’d learned long ago that crying wouldn’t fix it. I couldn’t rewind time and undo the events of my past, but I could vow that I would never let them happen again.

I didn’t tell Theo, but my parents found me the week after my eighteenth birthday—a private investigator. I shouldn’t have been surprised, but they sure as hell weren’t expecting me to simply… refuse. I was eighteen, and didn’t have to go anywhere. I was my own person now, and far from the submissive daughter they’d imagined me to be.

Eventually, with one deep, shuddering breath, Theo raised their head. We untangled from each other and I twisted to wipe the tears from Theo’s face. “I’m sorry,” I murmured. “I didn’t mean to make you so upset.”

“Don’t you dare apologize.” Theo grabbed some tissues from their bag and cleaned their face. “I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have let you see that.”

“Oh, shut up,” I laughed. “We’re a team, remember?”

Theo didn’t answer, only let me take the tissue and scrub at the spots where they’d missed. Their skin, though irritated from crying, was soft beneath my touch. I let the Kleenex fall to the ground in favor of feeling their silky-soft cheek beneath my thumb. A harsh breath rushed out of me. Even post-meltdown, they were stunning. This close, I could make out the individual freckles scattered across their nose and cheeks. I noticed a scar beneath their left eyebrow that hadn’t been there when we met.

Something in the air shifted between us, tension building and heat gathering in my core.

“T…” I hushed.

Tears dangled from their lashes, glittering in the moonlight. “Yeah?”

“Are you going to kiss me or not?”

I grunted with the force of Theo’s lips on mine. Their hands threaded through my hair, holding me close—like I’d want to be anywhere else. They kissed like they’d never get the chance again—hungry and desperate. Salt hit my lips, tinging the kiss with the taste of our tears. Theo’s tongue didn’t even ask permission, slipping into my mouth like it had every right to do so. A piercing knocked against my teeth and dragged against my own tongue. Lust tightened my core, leaving me wondering what that piercing would feel like elsewhere.

Theo’s kiss lit up fireworks inside me. Loud, bright crackles and pops of desire thrummed through my system.

And when I parted to take a breath, I realized that I hadn’t imagined the fireworks. Bright bursts of color flickered across the night sky. Reds, pinks, blues, all raining down on the camp beneath.

My hands lifted to cup Theo’s cheeks and hold them against me. Dampness hit my thumbs, more tears pouring from their eyes. My own fell to join them. Fuck, they still tasted exactly how I remembered. They tasted like a warm summer night, like chocolate and marshmallows all wrapped up with sea salt and coconut.

I whimpered and hauled myself closer. When that wasn’t enough, I eased them onto their back and straddled their lap. “I missed you,” I cried through desperate attempts to take in a breath. “I missed you so fucking much.”

“Shea.” It was a quiet breath, a single plea. “Please let me⁠—”

“Yes.” I stole another kiss, burning lungs be damned. I needed more of them. I needed them to consume me until all the memories, all the pain of the last ten years cowered in their wake. “Whatever you want. Take it, Theo. Take me.”

Theo moaned and rose up, flipping me onto my back. The breath burst from my lungs, smothered by the ongoing sounds of the fireworks above. I hauled them in for another kiss, slowing things down. My tongue eased into their mouth, my body arching against theirs, needing to feel every part of them. They held themself up with one hand, the other expertly finessing my belt and jeans open. They plunged their hand into my pants and past the fluffy hem of the training underwear, finding my T-dick and giving it a few firm strokes.

Slick heat dampened Theo’s hand and I shuddered, moaning into their mouth. “Da,” I whimpered.

Theo smiled against my lips. “I know, baby. Let me take care of it. Let me hear you.”

Warm mouth against my neck, Theo slid and kissed their way down my body. A cry clawed up from deep in my chest, barely masked by the crackles and pops overhead. Theo lifted my shirt, first brushing that shitty tattoo with their thumb before sucking a bruise to the sensitive skin. Heat rose to the surface, warming under their tongue. There’d be a mark for sure, but I didn’t care. Theo could mark me up any way they wanted. My breath came in quick pants. Their hands curled around my hips, slipped into my jeans to pull them down my thighs. They worked fast, hauling my underwear down and putting their mouth to me. It was hot and wet, tongue latching onto my T-dick like a lollipop. Theo hummed, vibrations traveling through the sensitive skin. I was already on edge. It never took much with them, but so many years apart had been like being on a train that never reached the station.

I’d never known pleasure like that. Sparks zapped across my skin, dancing from nerve ending to nerve ending and culminating in a knot of desire low in my belly, wound so tight that it was ready to snap. Theo knelt between my legs, licking from my T-dick down to my entrance and back again, lapping up every taste of me they could get. My eyes fluttered shut, fingers spearing through their hair to hold them in place.

They were exactly what I needed. Every instance over the last ten years where I’d felt like something was missing, it was Theo.

It was always Theo.