Page 99 of Gatsby's Starlet
“You found me,” I said, because it was easier than everything else sitting behind it.
“Yeah,” he said, voice low, rough, like it scraped on the way out.
I nodded once, arms crossing without thinking. “I’m sorry.”
His jaw ticked, something sharp flashing before he reined it in. “Yeah… you should be.”
That hit harder than anything else had. “I was scared,” I said, stepping closer without realizing it. “I wanted to tell you—but Kane said he’d kill you. All of you.”
His head dropped, a rough breath leaving him before he looked back up, something darker sitting behind his eyes now.
“You don’t get to carry that alone,” he said, voice tight. “You don’t get to decide I don’t get a say.”
“That’s how it felt,” I shot back, closer now, the space between us gone without either of us really choosing it.
That landed.
Hard.
He dragged a hand over his neck, pacing once like he needed to burn something off before stopping in front of me again.
“You almost died,” he said, slower now, rough in a different way. “You get that? You were indangerand I wasn’t there.”
“I would’ve rather died than let him hurt you because of me.”
His head snapped up. “Don’t.”
The word cracked, sharp enough to cut through everything.
“Don’t ever say that shit again,” he added, quieter but worse, like it came from somewhere deeper than anger.
Silence hit hard after that.
“I care about you,” he went on, voice lower now, steadier but no less intense. “More than I should. More than’s smart. More than I ever planned on.”
His gaze locked on mine, and for a second, just a second, there was something there that looked dangerously close to breaking.
“Fuck, Evie…” he exhaled, like the words cost him something. “I love you.”
That cracked something open in me. “I love you, too,” I said, softer, but just as real.
He held my gaze, searching it like he needed proof, then nodded once “Then we do this right,” he said. “No more lies. No more shutting me out. You got something, you bring it to me. I don’t care how bad it is, I’d rather take it head-on than almost lose you again.”
A shaky breath left me. “Okay.”
He stepped closer then, slower this time, like he was holding himself back on purpose, like he didn’t trust what would happen if he didn’t.
His hand came up, rough fingers brushing my jaw, and that was it.
I moved into him.
My hands fisted in his shirt as I pulled him in, and whatever control he’d been holding onto snapped clean, his hand locking at my waist as his mouth crashed into mine hard enough to steal the breath from my lungs.
It wasn’t soft. It was everything we hadn’t said, everything we hadn’t let happen, everything we almost lost, colliding all at once with nowhere to go but here.
I leaned into him, into the solid heat of him, into the fact that he was here, and I felt the shift in him instantly, something darker breaking loose under the surface as his grip tightened, like letting me go wasn’t something he trusted himself to do anymore.
His hand slid into my hair, pulling just enough to tip my head back before his mouth found mine again, deeper this time, slower but heavier, like he was grounding himself in it, like he needed to feel that I was real.
