Page 140 of Broken Pact
But I’ll always remember them. The fear that wrapped around my neck and tried to choke the life out of me. The guilt for those people Grant killed in some kind of twisted declaration of love for me. Sometimes I don’t feel like I have any right to feel any of kind of trauma after what happened. At the end of the day, I walked away with some cuts and bruises, but I got to walk away.
Those other people didn’t.
Jasper explodes from the water like some kind of merman, flipping his hair back and resting his forearms on the end of the floating platform. “You love me.”
He says it so simply, like he’s stating that the sun is shining. But in a way, it is a simple statement. He’s been doing this every day, just dropping those three little words to me at the most random times.
But today, I know exactly what fueled it.
I turn my head and look at him, enjoying the way the sun feels on my skin. “I see you saw my post this morning.”
He grins, that infuriating charming smile, resting his chin over his folded arms. His eyes almost sparkle in this light, like they’re lit from within. He whistles under his breath. “This morning? Baby, you’ve been writing me love letters for years with your captions.”
A laugh sputters out of me. “Years? Keep dreaming, Jasper.”
“Every fuckin’ night, baby.” He grins and waggles his eyebrows.
“It’s been a week,” I say with a scoff, rolling my eyes behind my sunglasses.
Some of my posts on socials are random captions and some of them are purposeful. In hindsight, my subconscious had been hard at work picking song titles for him—us—for months now. But I didn’t consciously start choosing specific songs for him until the day after everything imploded.
This thing between us still feels fragile, and I’m scared as hell that I’m going to do something to mess it up. But I’ve also never been happier than when I’m here, with him.
He slips back into the water, swimming over to my side. I roll over to my stomach just as he pushes himself up onto the platform, water cascading off his sculpted body as he settles next to me. His proximity sends a shiver down my spine, and I can feel the heat radiating off his sun-warmed skin.
“Home. Running Up That Hill. VCR. Work Song. Everlong,” he says, ticking them off by holding up a finger with each one. “And my personal favorites, Maps and Sea of Love.”
I feel the heat creeping up my neck as he recites the song titles, each one a carefully chosen message meant only for him. I wasn’t really trying to be subtle, but when he lists them out like that, I realize how obvious it is.
“You forgot Lover,” I murmur, holding his gaze.
“Nah, I could never forget you.” It sounds like a promise.
His words wrap around my heart like a warm embrace, filling me with a sense of belonging I've never quite felt before. It's as if all the pieces of my life have finally clicked into place, forming a picture I didn't even know I was searching for.
“You’re impossible,” I say, but there’s no bite to my words. Only a fondness that seems to grow with each passing day.
He pushes himself off the platform, landing next to me. “Impossibly in love with you, baby,” he counters smoothly, his eyes crinkling at the corners.
I shake my head, despite the laugh that tugs out of me. “That was so bad.”
I reach over and he slides me underneath him. “You love it.”
His lips hover over mine, and I wrap my arms around his shoulders. “I do.”
“Give me your words,” he murmurs, lake water dripping from his hair and landing on my forehead. “I wanna hear you say it.”
I tip my head up and capture his bottom lip between my teeth with a gentle tug. I release him, swiping my tongue along the curve of his smirk. “I love you, Jasper Devereaux.”
“Coraline Carter, I love you endlessly. Until the world stops spinning and the stars fall out of the sky.”
He leans down, closing the distance between us, and presses his lips to mine. The kiss is slow and deep, filled with a tenderness that makes my heart ache in the best possible way. His hand cups my cheek, his thumb gently caressing my skin as he pours every ounce of his love into the kiss.
In this moment, everything else fades away. The gentle lapping of the lake against the shore, the rustling of leaves in the breeze, the distant chirping of birds.
Time ceases to exist, like the universe itself holds its breath as the love of my life kisses me like I’m the only oxygen he’ll ever need.
It’s perfect—he’s perfect. For me. And I’m never going to let him go again.
***
