She sniffs, swiping at her face, even though it’s impossible to tell what’s rain and what’s something else. “I was terrified, Jax. Of losing you, of messing this up—” Her voice shakes, her fingers curling at her sides. “But being without you these past few months? It was worse. So much worse.”
Her words hit me hard, sending a fresh wave of something overwhelming through me.
Hope.
Fucking hope.
I take another step forward, then another. My hands twitch at my sides, aching to touch her, but I force myself to hold back. She needs to do this. She needs to come to me.
Her gaze drops to my chest, my soaked-through t-shirt clinging to me, and she exhales a laugh, breathless and disbelieving. “You’re really here.”
I tilt my head, my throat tightening. “Yeah, baby. I’m here.”
Her eyes snap back to mine, her breath catching. Fuck, I don’t know how much longer I can do this.
She takes a hesitant step closer, her fingers flexing like she wants to reach for me but isn’t sure if she should. The space between us is nothing now, just inches, the heat of her body mixing with the cold rain, her scent cutting through the storm, pulling me under like it always does.
“Jaxon.” Her voice is barely above a whisper.
And that’s it. That’s my breaking point.
I reach for her, my fingers grazing her arms, sliding down to her wrists, wrapping around her, pulling her closer until our foreheads nearly brush. My pulse pounds, my restraint hanging by a thread.
“Say it again,” I murmur, my voice hoarse.
She tilts her head up, her eyes locked on mine, something deep and unshakable shining in them. “I love you.”
My breath shudders out of me, my fingers tightening around her wrists, my lips parting. Then?—
“Oh, for fuck’s sake,” Carter yells from the truck, voice exasperated. “Would you two just kiss and make up already?”
Madison laughs—a full, real, Maddy laugh, and the sound of it is everything.
I grin, shaking my head as I brush my nose against hers. “You heard the man.”
Her fingers fist my soaked t-shirt, her breath warm against mylips. The second her fingers tighten in the cloth as she pulls me in, the world tilts, snapping into place like it wasalways meantto.
I crash my mouth to hers, swallowing her soft gasp, my hands framing her rain-slicked face, holding her like she’s something precious—because sheis.
She always has been.
The rain is relentless, soaking through every inch of us, but I don’t feel the cold. I only feelher—the warmth of her lips moving against mine, the tremble in her breath as she exhales into me, the way her hands curl tighter into my shirt, desperate, like she’safraid to let go.
I wrap my arms around her waist, pulling her impossibly closer until there’snothingleft between us. Her body molds to mine, soft in all the places I’m hard, fittingperfectly, like she was made to be righthere, in my arms, in this moment with me.
She lets out a quiet, needy sound against my lips, and it wrecks me completely.
I angle my head, deepening the kiss, sliding my hands down her back, loving the way she arches into me without hesitation. My fingers flex against her soaked t-shirt, every fiber of my body screaming to touchmore, to havemore, but I force myself to slow down.
Because this isn’t just aboutwantingher.
It’s abouthavingher, really,trulyhaving her in a way I’ve only ever dreamed of.
She’schoosingme.
She’shere.
And fuck, I think I might be shaking too.
