I only sob harder.
He doesn’t flinch. Just keeps holding me. One hand rubs slow circles over my spine. The other threads through my hair, soothing without pressure. I feel him press a kiss to my temple, then one to my forehead, my cheek, my jaw, my tears.
Eventually, my breathing evens out enough to whisper, “Sorry. Really bad day at work.”
“Don’t apologize,” he roughs out. “Wanna talk about it?”
“No,” I choke out. “Really don’t.”
“That’s okay, too.” He leans back to look at me, brows drawn. “What can I do? How can I help?”
I shake my head, chest hollow, vision blurry.
There’s no fixing this. No solution I can come up with. Not just for Tessa and her family, but for this… this…acheinside me. No miracle cure for the pain that comes from knowing I wasn’t enough today. That something was bigger than what I could control with my two hands.
I just stare at him. At his wide shoulders and steady care. At the quiet strength I want to crawl into and live inside. The safety I don’t know what I’d do without.
Somewhere along the way, Kade has become my home. It’s as terrifying as it is real.
“Just…” I swallow, shrugging helplessly. “Help me forget.” Licking my dry lips, I rasp, “Please.”
His brow furrows. “Baby…”
“I don’t want to think about it anymore,” I whisper, voice raw and desperate. “Please, Kade.”
He hesitates, but he doesn’t leave or judge me. Doesn’t tell me it’s a fucked-up way to cope. And maybe it is. Maybe I should be doing yoga or… I don’t know, praying for healing.
But neither of those things are me, and neither of them will make my brain turn off or my body stop bending under the pressure sinking in around me.
Being with him, though… Losing myself in all that is Kade Archer… Losing myself in hislove—love he hasn’t spoken out loud but shows me quietly every day with his mouth and body and unspoken promises…
Thatheals me.
So I kiss him, laying all the things I can’t say in the space between us.
I slam my lips to his and climb into his lap in the same breath, straddling his thighs and grabbing handfuls of his hair like he’s the only thing keeping me tethered. I feel his hands catch my waist on instinct, steadying me.
“Georgia—” he murmurs against my lips, but he doesn’t stop kissing me.
“Please,” I beg, pulling back just long enough to breathe the words into his mouth. “I need to feel something else. Anything but this. I need to feel you.”
Need you to love me the only way you can.
He nods against my mouth, breath ragged, then slips one arm under my thighs and the other behind my back, lifting me with ease. I bury my face in his neck as he carries me toward his bedroom, each step silent except for the pounding in my chest.
“Where’s Rory?”
He passes the nursery door, shifting me enough to tug it closed. “Asleep. So you’ll have to be quiet,” he murmurs. “Can you do that? Can you be my good girl and stay quiet?”
I nod fast, heart thudding, throat dry.
He steps into the bedroom and shuts the door with a quiet click before lowering me slowly to the floor, letting my body slide down his. I can feel every muscle, every ridge, every inch of him against me.
His eyes rake over my body as I steady myself, and his throat bobs with a heavy swallow. “God, you’re beautiful, baby.”
My chest rises and falls too fast and I clench my hands in front of me, suddenly nervous under his watchful gaze. “What… what do you want me to do?”
He doesn’t move, just stares for a long time before finally murmuring, “Strip.”
