Page 46 of Meant for You

He moved around the table and slid his hands around my waist. I stared up at him, still trembling, still close to freaking out.

“What is it?” His gaze searched mine.

“I’m scared,” I said, giving him the truth.

He tucked my hair behind my ear. “What are you scared of?”

“Losing you again,” I said, because being anything but honest would have been a mistake, and he was right. We didn’t keep things from each other. “If we try this and it doesn’t work out, if we’re not good together that way, we could lose everything. We could lose this…I could lose my best friend again.”

He pulled me in close, tucking me under his chin. “You’ll never lose me, Eves, never again. No matter what happens in the future, you’ll never lose me.”

“And if it doesn’t work out?”

“It will,” he said, sounding so sure.

“But if it doesn’t?” I persisted.

He was quiet for several beats. “I can’t give you that answer, because it’s not something I can imagine. Ever since I met you, I always knew you’d be in my life. Back then I didn’t know I’d eventually want this, but it feels right, so fucking right, baby, and I know you feel it, too.”

I did. Of course I did. But I also remembered how it felt to lose him, to have the most important person in my life cut me off like I didn’t exist to him anymore. I knew why he did it. I knew it came from a place of love and fear. That he thought it was the right thing for me. But it had torn me apart. I didn’t think he knew just how much losing him had wrecked me.

He’d become my family after my parents died. He was everything to me. My aunt had tried but she’d always stayed distant. She’d taken me out of duty, not love.

Then I’d lost Dane.

And I felt like my soul had been torn from me. I’d felt anchorless.

Alone.

“Do you want me?” he asked, so deep and husky I shivered.

“Dane…”

“Did you like it when I kissed you? Did you feel like your skin was on fire, like you couldn’t get close enough, like you thought you might die if you didn’t get more of me? Because that’s how I felt, Eves,” he said and leaned back, looking down at me. “Tell me you felt it, too.”

“Yes,” I choked out, because again I couldn’t lie, couldn’t keep this from him. Despite everything, I didn’t want to. “Yes, I felt it.”

Chapter Ten

Dane

Everly stared up at me, lips trembling.

My gut was in knots as I searched her gaze, not sure if she was happy about wanting me or not.

I hadn’t meant to tell her how I felt, not yet, but when the words surfaced, I couldn’t stop them from coming out of my mouth. We’d already lost so much time together. I didn’t want to play games or pretend I wasn’t feeling what I was. I just wanted her.

And despite just telling me that she wanted me, too, there was no missing the fear, the deep fucking awful fear in those beautiful eyes.

I’d caused that when I went away, and the only way to convince her to trust me, to know in her heart that I wouldn’t do that to her again, was time…was to show her.

“You’re afraid,” I said, because again I wasn’t playing games with this, with her, and the only way to make this work was to talk shit through.

“Yes,” she said without hesitation. “I’m terrified.”

“You gonna take a chance on us anyway, baby?” I said, my heart in my throat, my own fear damn near choking me, fear that she wouldn’t give us this.

She blinked and a tear streaked down her cheek, her body trembling harder under my hands. “I want to…”