Page 169 of Beneath the Frost
Her back met the edge of the counter, hips fitting into my hands like they’d been made for it. She hooked a leg around my waist, dragging me in, kissing me deeper, harder, like this was the only language we were ever meant to speak.
I wasn’t thinking about anything but her. My body was just my body—strong and steady and exactly where I wanted to be.
Exactly where I chose to be.
Her fingers slid up my spine, nails grazing my skin, and she sighed into my mouth, that soft, wrecked sound I’d do anything to keep earning for the rest of my life.
I smiled against her lips, dizzy with it all—the studio, the fairy lights, the woman in my arms who’d walked away instead of letting me drown, then let me earn my way back.
My woman.
My future.
My second chance, standing here in a place we’d built together.
“Clara,” I whispered, just to taste her name.
She looked up at me, eyes shining, and that was it. That was the moment I knew there wasn’t a damn thing left of the man who’d chosen fear over her.
“I love you,” I said, simple and sure, like a fact. Like gravity.
Her fingers curled in my shirt, tugging me down into another kiss that left no room for doubt.
“Good,” she breathed against my mouth. “Because I love you too.”
I laughed, low and stunned and completely gone, and kissed her back while the town I loved hummed outside and wrapped around us like a promise.
I had thought the accident stole any chance I had for happiness, so I’d turned cold. Turns out, beneath the frost, a whole new, incredible life had been quietly getting ready to grow.
Clarahad been there the whole time—waiting.
And this time, I wasn’t going to waste a single second of it.
