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His eyes scanned mine, the room still dark but we’d adjusted to it now, enough to see his face close up, anyway. “You felt it too? Do you... feel the same?”
My heart rate kicked back up a gear. Okay wow, we were going to discuss this... “I feel... something I’ve never felt before,” I said, laying my truth bare. “I’m not sure... I, uh... God.”
He snorted out a laugh, his hand to my cheek. “I said somethin’ similar to my dad tonight.”
Wait, what?
“Uh, you did what?”
Tully sighed, his sleepy eyes heavy-lidded and dreamy. “My dad, he said somethin’ to me tonight. Somethin’ I didn’t think I was ready to talk about, but who knows, maybe I am.”
I brushed his long blond hair from his forehead. “And what’s that?”
“I’m falling in love with you,” he whispered. “But I’ve never... I mean, I know what love is, but what I feel for you is so much more. I dunno how to explain it. And I don’t expect you to say anything back. That’s not why I told you. Ellis thinks I’m a hopeless sap because none of my family have ever seen me be with anyone else the way I am with you. God, this is embarrassing.” He laughed and tried to duck his face, but I made him look at me.
I planted a soft kiss on his lips. “Tully—”
“It’s okay,” he blurted. “I don’t expect you to say anything. I just wanted you to know, because... well, I don’t know why. Because you deserve to be loved. God, I fell so hard, so fast, it’s crazy, but you... you’re someone very special to me, Jeremiah. And if you wanna know the real reason my dad and brother didn’t rip me a new arsehole, it’s because my mother told them they couldn’t. She said it was very obvious that I was in love with you and therefore it was off limits because she would expect my dad to do for her exactly what I did for you.” He sighed. “When Dad said that—you know, the L-word—I almost died, but you know what? They’re right. I do. I love you. I knew I was in love with you but just wasn’t sure if I was ready to hear it.” He traced his finger from my temple to my cheek. “Pretty sure I fell for you back at the bunker when you went out into the storm and almost got hit by lightning and you raced back and slid under the side wall like an action-movie star. Pretty sure my heart saw that and went, ‘Yep, you know what? That’s a done deal right there. That’s your person, Tully.’ And honestly, the pissing into the empty bottle and givin’ it to the crocodiles to drink was just an added bonus.”
I burst out laughing. “I didn’t give it to the crocodiles to drink.”
He chuckled, his eyes searching mine. Happy, serene.
In love.
I traced my thumb along his bottom lip, my heart two sizes too large for my chest, knocking against my ribs, urging me to say something...
“I feel it too,” I whispered. “To be honest, it scares me because... well, because I don’t know what love is. I have no experience in talking about emotions. Growing up with my dad, he was very closed off. I threw myself into my studies, and my only experience with men involved brief encounters—”
“In bathroom stalls.”
“Exactly.” I managed an embarrassed smile. “But I think it’s... what you said. When I look at you... God, Tully, I can’t talk about this because I’ve never talked about this stuff.” I closed my eyes and laughed. “My god, you should feel my heart.”
He laughed and put his palm to my chest. “Oh, where’s your watch?”
“I took it off. It would have melted on my wrist if it measured what we just did.”
He laughed, his eyes bright, his smile wide. “Such a shame. I’d have loved for it to send out a health distress alert to the ambos. We could have given them a show.”
I chuckled. “I’m sure paramedics have seen worse.”
“Worse? God, they’d be strapped to see better, I can tell you that much. Christ, that was hot. Possibly the best sex of my life. You made me cry, and that’s a first.”
I kissed him. “Because it wasn’t just sex.”
His smile faded into something more serene, his eyes intense. “No, it wasn’t.”
“So are you just going to ignore the fact that I told you I felt the same?” I asked. “And how much it scares me? Is that something we’re just going to gloss over? Because I’ve never said that to anyone in my entire life. Not even my father.”
“Nothing scares you. I’ve seen you not even flinch when lightning hit the ground fifty metres from you.”
I scanned his eyes. If only he knew how wrong he was. “You terrify me.”
He breathed in deep and sighed happily. “You feel the same.”
I nodded.
“But you struggle to say it because you were never shown love.”
