Page 138 of When We Had Forever
I drift over the threshold and out into the rain. Icy rivulets stream down my back, but I barely feel the cold.
“You’re getting wet,” Grayson says, but makes no move to stop me.
“I am.” I edge closer. The force of his scent and his gaze hit me at the same time, a double dose of intensity that arrows into me and just keeps on going. “How’re you even here right now? It’s a three-hour drive. I texted you two and a half hours ago.”
“I drive fast.” He clears his throat, looking more unsure than I thought possible. “And your message gave me extra motivation.”
Despite the rain, heat splashes across my cheeks. “But why didn’t you tell me you were coming?”
“Well, I’d like to say it’s because I’m altogether that confident. But you said you wanted to see me, and the truth is I didn’t want to give you a chance to change your mind.”
“I wouldn’t have.”
“Oh. Okay, then.” He pushes his sopping hair out of his face. Light sparks in those unforgettable eyes. It looks a lot like yearning. “You had something to say?”
“I did.” I balance there, caught in a moment that seems to funnel my life back onto its charted course. Finally. I’m a soaring bird, stabilizing on an updraft. A ship righting itself in the current.
I reach for his saturated shirtfront. It doesn’t feel like three months have passed since I stood with him like this. It feels like I’ve always been right here, one half of this perfect circle. Which makes what comes next feel absurdly natural. “I’m desperately in love with you. I want you to know that.”
Grayson’s whole body stills. “I’m desperately in love with you, too.”
That’s it. It’s just...easy. True. A statement of fact that surprises nobody.
Well, maybe it surprises him, because he leans down, searching my eyes like he can’t quite believe it. “Does this mean you forgive me?”
“Yes,” I breathe.
An exhale gusts out through his nose. “And...we can start over?” he says huskily.
I tug him closer. The wet darkness falls away as the world whittles down to this single question. Grayson waits, his gaze the same one from that night on the mountaintop. And from earlier tonight, when he told me he loved me through the TV.
“I can’t start over,” I say. “But for you, I can start new. If that’s what you want.”
He closes his eyes for a moment. Opens them. “Fuck yes, that’s what I want.”
And then we’re kissing. Falling into each other like we’ve crossed an ocean of years to arrive at this place. I go up on tiptoes and fasten my arms around his neck while he folds me against the length of his body. Every ridge and valley of him, every press of his fingers against my hip and in my hair, feels like home.
I’m lost. Found. Everything at once.
Ours tongues tangle. I sigh into his mouth, losing myself in the way he tastes like he’s been waiting all this time, like his longing has been crouching inside of him for months, growing into something breathtaking and unstoppable.
“Take me inside.” I cling to him, soaked through and shivering.
In another moment, he’s hoisting me up, wrapping my legs around his waist and carrying me in. He slams the front door with his foot. “Where’s your room?” The shine of his eyes deepens by the moment.
I can barely fit the word in between my cantering heartbeats. “Upstairs.”
He carries me up. We pull off each other’s wet things and burrow into my brand-new king-size bed, naked. Grayson nestles on his side and tugs me against his chest.
I press my face against his wet skin, then kiss his tattoos and breathe in his woodsy richness. When our eyes meet again, a sense of completion flows into me, of absolute belonging.
My breath hitches. God, I was right when I told Kate I would never fall in love again. Because what I feel right now has been living inside me for all of these years. It may change, sharpen, flow into different forms, but I will never not love this man.
“I hope you never stop looking at me like that,” I say.
Grayson rolls onto his back and pulls me with him, staring up while I straddle him. “I don’t plan to.”
We stay like that, bodies pressed together, eyes locked. He reaches up and traces my jawline as if reassuring himself I’m his. That this is real.
