Page 151
I kiss him before he can turn this into an investigation, and whatever answer he might’ve given disappears against my mouth.
His hand moves farther up my back as he keeps me close, the other remaining firmly at my waist, and the care in his grip affects me almost as much as everything he admitted in the car.
He could overpower me without trying, and I’ve known that from the beginning, but Bane has never used his strength to make me feel small. Even when he’s protective enough to drive me insane, he’s always made room for me inside that protection.
Knowing Bane noticed how unhappy I’d become with Spencer affects me more than the fact that he wanted me, and that realization finally pulls me out of the kiss.
I ease back with my hands against his chest, trying to separate the two when they’ve been tangled together in my head since we left Queens.
Concern replaces the amusement in his expression as he studies my face. “You okay?”
“I keep thinking about what you told me.” I loosen my grip and smooth the creases I’ve made in his shirt, although the effort does very little to repair the damage. “I don’t think my brain has caught up yet.”
His hands ease at my waist, giving me room without letting me go. “Which part?”
I try to work out how to explain the part that’s been following me since the car. “You noticing me back then matters more than I know what to do with.”
“Because you didn’t know?”
“Because I thought nobody did.” I meet his eyes before I can retreat from the admission. “I spent so much time making excuses for Spencer that I stopped expecting anyone to see what being with him was doing to me.”
Bane’s expression changes, and his hand moves against my side as though he’s about to pull me closer before he stops himself.
“I don’t wish you’d told me how you felt,” I continue. “You did the right thing by leaving because I was still with him, and wanting me didn’t give you the right to interfere with that relationship.”
“I know.”
“I just wish I’d known somebody saw me.”
His hand closes around mine where it rests against his chest, and I can feel his heartbeat beneath my palm.
“I saw you,” he says.
The simplicity of it catches painfully beneath my ribs, but I keep going because there’s another truth he deserves after everything he gave me in the car.
“I noticed when you disappeared, too. I asked Spencer where you’d gone, and months later I was still wondering about you. I kept telling myself I was only curious.”
Bane watches me without interrupting.
“You made me feel seen in that dressing room,” I tell him, sliding my free hand around the back of his neck. “I remembered you because of it.”
He kisses me before I can say anything else.
His arm closes around my waist and pulls me against him as years of questions finally lose their grip on us, because whatever we felt back then doesn’t need to be explained away anymore.
I kiss him harder, sliding my fingers into his hair. His mouth moves over mine, and by the time we separate enough to breathe, I’m smiling against him.
“We should probably move away from the door,” I murmur, glancing at the few inches we’ve managed to travel since coming inside.
Bane follows my gaze before looking back at me. “Probably.”
He makes absolutely no effort to move.
I wait, increasingly amused, but his hands remain exactly where they are. “Excellent progress.”
His mouth curves before his hand slides into my hair and he kisses me again, and this time I let the rest of the night disappear beyond the penthouse door.
Celeste’s notebook and every question surrounding Bane’s missing years will still be waiting tomorrow. Spencer has already taken more of my life than I ever should’ve given him.
