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“I have to tell you something,” I tell her seriously.
She looks at me with bright, expectant eyes.
“I lied to you. When we broke out Charlie, I said I was doing it for her. That I wanted to help you protect her. But that wasn’t the truth, Meredith. I did it because you asked me to.”
I swallow hard, trying to search my hazy brain for exactly the right words.
“When I saw you here with Charlie that first day, it was like I was drawn to you,” I breathe out. “I have never felt that way with anyone. I’ve been attracted to other women, but with you, it was like a physical pull. I couldn’t stop thinking about you. I never could.”
She inhales sharply, and I see her tense up. But she listens patiently. She doesn’t look so guarded. She isn’t shutting down the way she did before.
“I don’t think I believe in soulmates,” I say. “I’m not sure if I believed in love before I met you. But I believe two people can be meant to find each other, and I was meant to find you.”
My throat feels thick. Meredith is crying too, but I can’t tell if they’re happy tears. If she rejects me right now, it will hurt. Then again, it can’t hurt more than being shot in two places. I’ll heal from it and move on. I think.
“So, I guess my last question is, why are you still here?”
She stares into my eyes, but her expression is unreadable.
“I was worried about you,” she says slowly.
I feel the rejection building. She’ll say she cares about me as a friend and that’s all. She’ll say that she’s sorry, but she doesn’t feel the same. She’ll say—
“Graveyard, I spent four years running from my narcissistic, psychotic ex-boyfriend. In all that time, I could only think about one thing, and it was finding and hiding gifted children. That was all I could do. There was no space in my head or my heart for anything else.”
She takes a deep breath, and I brace myself for her to let me down.
“When I saw them put you in that car and drive you away, I felt like a piece of me was dying.” Tears fall quickly from her eyes. “I had no idea what was going to happen. Not to Damien, Charlie, or me. But I knew that if you didn’t make it, I wouldn’t survive. I’m here because, for the first time in four years, I get to want something. And I want you.”
“I’m yours,” I whisper, too emotional to speak any louder. “From day one, I’ve been yours. So you better get over here.”
She walks slowly to my side. I move my bed up so I’m sitting. With the wires and IV, this won’t be easy, but I’ve waited a long time for this. She leans closer to me, so torturously slowly, and her lips gently brush against mine. I moan the second she touches me, so ready to finally taste her.
My tongue immediately darts out, and she opens her mouth for me. She sinks down so she’s sitting on the edge of the bed, careful not to put any of her weight on me. I hear my heart monitor going crazy. For one ridiculous moment, I feel embarrassed. Then I realize I want her to hear it. I want her to hear the effect she has on me. But I don’t want the entire floor to hear.
I pull back gently, and her lips are still parted for me. Fuck, she’s sexy. This isn’t how I ever imagined our first kiss. It would have been much more romantic if I’d had any say over it.
“You should lock the door,” I whisper to her. She’s up in a flash.
CHAPTERTHIRTY-ONE
My heart races and my palms sweat as I walk toward the door and latch it. I’m not sure how I worked up the strength to walk away from him. Fuck, he’s a smooth talker. And a smoother kisser. My panties are already wet, and we’ve barely kissed. The way his tongue felt against mine was heaven. I can only imagine how it would feel to have his lips kissing me everywhere.
I’m hot all over just thinking about it. I return to him, holding his gaze. He’s staring at me, his eyes dark with lust. I’ve never felt so sexy in my entire life. The way he looks at me makes me forget any man ever existed. And fuck, it’s been so long. The last man who touched me, well, I don’t want to think about him now. I don’t want to think about him ever again.
“You should also mute my monitor,” Graveyard whispers, his voice gravelly.
I move to the monitor and look at him, not sure which button to press. I don’t want to hit something and switch off the machines that are keeping him alive.
“It’s the one that looks like a speaker with a big red X,” he tells me, teasingly.
“You mean this big red button?” I ask, hovering my finger over it. “You promise I won’t kill you when I press this button?”
“Not the way you think,” he murmurs. I feel that pull he’s talking about. I don’t want to be away from him for one more second. I turn the sound off and move back to the side of the bed.
It’s hard to kiss him like this. I want to feel him with every inch of my body, but I’m so aware of his situation. He’s been shot in the chest, for christ’s sake. His shoulder is healing too. If I put pressure in the wrong place or lean against him the wrong way, I could cause him pain. Fuck Damien for this. Of all the horrible things he’s done, I’m most furious about this right now.
My lips are back on Graveyard’s. While my body is tentative, my lips aren’t. Neither are his. He kisses me with such force and passion it leaves me breathless. It’s like he’s becoming the air I breathe, and I might suffocate without him. Unlike me, his touch is not careful. His hands roam over my body, rubbing, feeling, and groping. He’s lighting me up like a Christmas tree.
