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Vaughn didn’t seem the least bit scared. But his laughter did die down enough for Fang to grudgingly put away his weapon.
I stared at Kian, who hadn’t said a word. “The last line doesn’t rhyme,” I admitted.
“Thank God,” Vaughn muttered. “I couldn’t take any more of that. It’s like you’ve been saving this up since tenth grade English class. I have a severe case of second-hand embarrassment.”
I ignored him, well used to him by now, and waited for Kian to say something. My fingers shook. I was suddenly so nervous I could vomit.
Maybe Kian noticed the trembling page, or he sensed the nerves coming off me, but his voice softened. “Read it, Little Demon. I’m not going to laugh at you.”
I nodded, putting all my focus on him. “You made me laugh when everything else around me felt dark and cold. You made me feel safe when I was scared and weak.” I swallowed hard and put the paper down, no longer needing it. “I know I don’t deserve your forgiveness, but I won’t stop trying to earn it. Because I love you. I love you so freaking much, Kian. The thought of losing you makes me so sick to my stomach I can’t even bear it.”
Vaughn was finally silent. The entire gym was.
Kian just looked at me.
Heat flushed my cheeks. I was making a fool out of myself, and I knew it, but I didn’t care. Even if he didn’t feel it back, I wanted him to know someone loved him enough to fight for him.
He needed to know there was room in my heart for one more. That a third of my heart was always meant for him, and I would love him like he owned it completely.
Vaughn elbowed him. “You gonna say something?”
I hated that Vaughn was having to prompt a response from him. I held my hands up. “No, it’s fine, you don’t have to say anything, but I wanted you to know—”
Kian closed the gap between us.
The words died on my lips as a little smile lifted his mouth. “You love me, huh?”
I nodded so fast it was surprising my head didn’t fall off. “I’m so sorry. I hate that we hurt you. I hate it took me so long to tell you what I’ve known in my heart since the day you put those locks on my bedroom door.”
He wrapped his arms around me. “That was about an hour after we met. You didn’t love me then.”
Maybe I hadn’t known it at the time, but in hindsight, I had. That was the moment I saw the depth of his kindness. He’d taken me into his home without a second thought. He’d made me feel safe and wanted at a time where I had no home, no family, and fear overwhelmed me.
I’d never be able to thank him enough for that.
He lowered his head, and I lifted up on my toes, closing the gap between us. He kissed me in a way he hadn’t before, taking his time, licking over my lips, and exploring my mouth with his tongue like we had all the time in the world, and there weren’t two other men in the room, watching us.
Kian made the world feel small. Like it was just him and me, and nothing else mattered as long as I was in his arms. The heat moved from my cheeks into other parts of my body, and I pressed against him, feeling the solid strength inside him. He held me tight, silently reassuring me this thing between us wasn’t over.
It never could be. My heart would be missing a piece without him.
“Maybe we should give them a moment,” Fang said softly to Vaughn.
Vaughn chuckled. “Fuck that, this is just getting good. I’m staying for the show.”
I pulled away from Kian’s lips in time to see Fang shaking his head. His fingers hovered over his gun. “You really make me want to use this sometimes, you know?”
Kian traced his thumb down the side of my face, ignoring Vaughn and Fang’s bickering. “So, are you taking up poetry now or something? Don’t get me wrong, I appreciate the sentiment…”
My shoulders slumped. “It was bad, I know.”
“So bad,” Vaughn choked out.
Kian frowned. “It’s not about it being bad or good or anything in between. It just doesn’t exactly seem like it’s something you’d normally do.”
I had hoped this wouldn’t come up, but I needed to be truthful with him. I’d realized something I wasn’t proud of, and it needed to be aired. “You were right when you said I was self-centered and caught up in my own problems so much I was ignoring those around me who also had things going on. I didn’t even know what to do to get you to forgive me. I knew a poem was a bad idea. But my only other thought was Jell-O wrestling in my underwear.”
Kian glanced over my body and lifted one shoulder. “I could go for that.”
