Page 112 of Billionaire’s Heartbreak

His hand covered mine before I could pull away. “We might not be alive tomorrow.” His fingers intertwined with mine. “And that's exactly why I don't want to waste another second pretending.”

I stared at our joined hands as his thumb moved slowly across my knuckles.

“I've spent years pretending I didn't love you.” His voice dropped. “I've spent years convincing myself that what happened between us belonged in the past.”

He turned away, his jaw tightening. “I told myself you were better off without me. That you deserved someone who wasn't carrying this mess into your life. Someone who wouldn't make you choose between the person you loved and the family you owed.”

He looked back at me, a faint, bittersweet smile tugging at the corner of his mouth. “It didn't work.”

My throat tightened. “Kai…”

“I tried.” He gave a quiet laugh, but there was no humour in it. “God, I tried.”

His confession broke something open inside me.

“I haven't stopped loving you.” The words left my mouth before I could take them back.

Kai stared at me as though he wasn't certain he'd heard correctly.

I reached up and touched his face, tracing my thumb gently along his cheek and feeling the faint roughness of stubble beneath my fingertips. “I haven't stopped,” I whispered again.

His eyes closed briefly. “If tomorrow is my last day…” he continued softly, “…I don't want to spend it wondering what might have been.” He lifted my hand to his lips and pressed a lingering kiss against my knuckles. “If I'm going to die…” His voice cracked just enough to break my heart. “…then let me die in your arms. Happy.”

A tear slipped down my cheek. I couldn't hold back any longer. “I love you too.”

The confession left my lips almost as a whisper.

His eyes widened, not with surprise, but with relief—the kind that came after carrying an impossible weight for far too long. A slow smile spread across his face. It was different from all the smiles I'd seen from him before. There was no arrogance in it, no teasing or carefully controlled confidence. Just happiness.

Carefully, mindful of the fresh bandages across his back, he slipped his hands around my waist and drew me onto his lap. I immediately placed one hand against his shoulder.

“Your back.”

“I'm fine.”

“You're always saying that.”

“And you're always worrying.”

“Because someone has to.”

His smile deepened. Our foreheads met, and for a long moment, we simply looked at each other. No more secrets. No more pretending.

Then he kissed me.

Softly at first, as though he were afraid I'd disappear if he moved too quickly. I answered without hesitation, my fingers slipping into his hair as he exhaled against my lips and tightened his arms around me, careful of his injuries but unwilling to let me go.

The kiss deepened, lingering and unhurried, carrying everything we had never dared to say aloud. I cupped his face in both hands, silently asking him to stay close, and he leaned into my touch as though he'd been waiting for it forever. His fingers slid gently through my hair before settling at the back of my neck, cradling me with a tenderness that made my chest ache.

I could feel the steady beat of his heart beneath my palm. Alive. That was all I wanted—for one more day, one more hour, one more stolen moment.

Every kiss seemed to erase another layer of fear until the world beyond the room ceased to exist. Time dissolved. The danger waiting outside, the blood, the wounds, the impossible future—none of it mattered. For one stolen moment, there was only us, and the quiet certainty that whatever tomorrow might bring, tonight we had finally stopped running from our hearts.

His hands moved over me with growing urgency, and I answered every touch, no longer afraid of what it meant. The last of the distance between us disappeared as we held each other closer, our breaths catching between kisses. There was no hesitation now, no pretending, no turning back.

We moved together with the instinctive familiarity of two people who had spent far too long denying what their hearts had already known. Eventually, there was nothing left between us but warmth and trust. Face to face, body to body, nothing hidden. Nothing but honesty.

His hand slid to the small of my back, silently asking a question I already knew the answer to.