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“This wasn’t just any story, was it, Elara? This was your truth.”
“It was. It is,” I stutter.
“And since you’re here right now…” He trails off, his thumb skirting along my bottom lip.
“It means I’m ready,” I push out past the knot in my throat.
“Thank God.” That’s all he says before his face dips and his lips meet mine.
My body remembers his touch perfectly. The way he starts soft, sliding his tongue along the seam of my mouth, asking, coaxing. The way one hand slides up the back of my shirt, his palm flattening against the bare skin on my lower back, while the other snakes around my neck holding me to him.
I don’t know how long the kiss lasts. One minute. Five. Ten. All I know is that when he finally pulls back I’ve been reduced to nothing more than a puddle at his feet.
“Do you have any idea how hard it’s been for me?” He drops his forehead to mine. “How many times I’ve wanted to come to you? How fucking miserable I’ve been without you?” He pulls me tighter against him. “I kept telling myself I was doing the right thing, but the more time that passed the more I regretted my choice to walk away from you.”
He pauses, pulling his face back to look at me. “But then I got that.” He nods toward the island behind me where the manuscript is sitting. “And I knew it was all worth it. Every day of missing you. Every day of wishing I could hold you, kiss you, make love to you. It was all worth it because I knew reading your words that you had finally found the peace you needed to find.”
“You gave me that,” I tell him, tears forming behind my eyes.
“No, I simply pointed you in the right direction. You did all the work.”
“I couldn’t have done it without you,” I say, keeping my face tilted up to hold his gaze. “I realized something while I was writing.”
“What’s that?” he asks when I don’t elaborate.
“I realized that it’s okay to love you both. For the longest time I felt guilty for loving you because loving you meant I loved him less. But I don’t love him less, I just love you differently. You’ll never replace Kam because you’re not Kam, and I don’t want you to be. I love you with every part of me, not just my heart. What you mean to me goes beyond friendship or connection or history. Kam was my best friend. Perhaps even my first love. But you, Kane Thaler, you are my everything. You are my heart. My lungs. My flesh. The very blood that flows through my veins. You are as much a part of me as I am myself. Thisiswith you.” I pull his hand from my neck and place it flat on my chest, directly over my heart. “I think it’s been with you from the first moment our eyes met, I just didn’t know it at the time.”
“Are you really here?” he whispers, arm tightening around my back, eyes refusing to lose my gaze. “I’ve been dreaming of this moment for weeks and now that you’re here, looking at me the way you are right now, saying the things you’re saying, I feel like maybe I’m dreaming and any moment I’m going to wake up and you won’t be here.”
“Do you want to be with me?” I cut him off.
“You know I do.” A slow smile forms on his lips.
“Then I’m not going anywhere,” I reassure him, my hands reaching up to cup either side of his scruff covered jaw.
“I love you.” He leans forward, murmuring against my lips.
“I love you,” I repeat, deepening the kiss as I pull him impossibly close.
Kane works my body with expert precision. Knowing exactly where to touch me, kiss me, how to move just right so that I’m nothing more than putty in his hands. And that’s exactly how I like it.
I used to be a girl who needed to control everything. Now I know that sometimes the best things happen when you just let go.
And as Kane lifts me into his arms and carries me toward his bedroom, I have only one thought in my mind. I’m exactly where I’m meant to be. After everything, I’ve finally found my place, my peace, my home, and I found it all in Kane Thaler.
