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“I love you, too,” she tells me. The best fucking words I’ve ever heard, whispered in a voice like music. “So much it hurts.”
“It won’t hurt anymore, sweetheart. Never again.”
Her smile is so beautiful it almost breaks me as I stroke her hair.
Honest to God, I’m floating and I don’t care.
That’s what falling does.
Especially when love takes you down so hard you can’t tell where the sky meets the ground anymore.
We’ve been through so much in one summer.
I reacted like I was allergic to her very presence, attacked her like a creature of pure lust, learned to appreciate her quirky names for cars and otter obsessions, and almost watched her die.
She’s scared me shitless many times.
And yet, this moment right here, this is what kills me.
It doesn’t feel real.
Like any second, some catastrophe might come along and steal her away.
I’m not taking any chances.
I’m making her mine, here and now.
Day one of eternity where I hang up my life as a corporate monk and make time for a new life with her.
“You know I can’t promise what’s going to happen from here,” I say slowly. “But I’m going to do my damnedest to protect you. Don’t care if that means tromping around in the rain after otters or digging a foxhole while your old man tries to blow my head off. I promise you’ll always have all of me, Dess.”
“Shepherd... are you trying to kill me today?” Her voice cracks.
“No. I’m trying to find a way to make it work. It’s all I’ll ever ask for.”
Her hands skim my face, touching my scar.
She feels it sometimes. Kisses it, too.
She just has this way of looking at me like I’m flawless, just as untouched by violence and bad decisions as her, even when I know she’s what holds me together.
I’m a rusty fucking hammer in a princess’ hand, and I love it.
I love her.
So fully and completely and overwhelmingly it’s blinding.
“You’re stuck with me now, so we’d better make it work,” she tells me.
Damn her, I laugh.
That’s my Dess, all sweetness and spice.
I love the little slice of crazy she is, even if I wonder if I’ll ever get used to the weight of those words.
Idefinitelywon’t get used to hearing her say them back.
With too much said and not enough kisses, I shove her fingers through mine and we head upstairs to the bedroom.
