Page 194 of The Rule Breaker
“I love you,” I tell him as he pulls me into a kiss that I never want to end.
We’re two people who know loss too well, finding happiness in each other when we feared there would be none.
He tells me he’d die for me.
But he needs to know what I’ll do for him.
I pull back far enough to break our kiss, but not far enough that his warm breath doesn’t entwine with mine in the tiny slice of air between us.
“I live for you, Denver Layne,” I declare, stroking his jaw. “I live for your vanilla coffee tasting lips, and your giant brutish arms around me. I live for your insistence of opening my door for me, which you know I secretly love, but will pretend not to. I live for the way you sleep with your gun under your pillow because you’re worried about losing someone you love again.”
His eyes shine as his hand wraps around my hip, holding me close.
“And I live for every time you tell me it will be okay… because the only time I’ve ever truly believed it has been when it’s you saying it.”
“Sinclair,” Denver breathes, wiping away a tear that’s rolling down my cheek.
“I love you,” I say again, wanting to tell him over and over. “Thank you for being that one solid in a world where everything felt like it was spinning and nothing was safe.”
The tender smile that graces his handsome face sends sparks bursting through me, like little shots of magic.
“Thank you for letting me be that person.” He strokes my hair back from my face. “I love you with every part of me, Sinclair. You’re everything to me.”
I sniff, fighting back happy tears, before deciding to embrace them. Who cares if our sexy sneak-away has turned emotional? I intend to soak up every second of it. I’ve cried too many tears of grief.
I welcome the wetness on my cheeks now as Denver looks at me like I’m his entire reason for existing.
“Just everything?” I pout, more tears falling.
“And more, Princess,” he rasps.
“How much?”
His rare chuckle washes over me as he leans closer, his lips hovering over mine.
“More than every shoe of yours I’ll find fault with. More than every door I’ll open for you, secretly loving that you try and fight me over it, because you toying with me is the highlight of my day. More than the way you love those smoothie stickers that have better jokes than me. And more than I’ll ever be able to tell you, even if I said it again and again until my final breath.”
He rests his forehead against mine, waiting.
“Hm,” I muse. “It’ll do as a start, I suppose.”
He purses his lips, his expression serious, only given away by the way his eyes are glittering. “I better up my efforts,” he says.
The next second the stars dotted against the inky sky flash past my eyes as he pulls me up into his arms, my body pressed against his chest, my legs flung over his arms. Like he’s about to sweep me away somewhere with urgency, bodyguard style.
“Sounds like a plan,” I say, pulling his lips to mine.
He kisses me, a deep groan building in his chest. “Time to execute the next phase,” he groans.
“Does it include that thing you do with your?—?”
He cuts me off with another kiss.
“Such a fucking princess,” he scolds. “Trust me, okay?”
“Always.”
“It’ll be okay,” he says. “Everything will be okay.”
And as he strides off with me in his arms, I gaze at his profile, my heart lifting every other second as he glances down to check on me, a smile playing on his lips.
I believe him.
Because now that I have Denver, I know, whatever happens now…
It’ll all be okay.
The End
