“You suspected me,” I say.
She looks up, locking her eyes on mine. “Yes,” she admits in a whisper. “I did.”
“Lexa.” I reach out and cup her cheek with my hand. “When I saw you standing next to that fountain, it was the best moment of my life. I searched so hard for you—and foundnothing—for so many years. I really did think that you were dead and that I would never know what happened to you.”
All the tension goes out of her body, and she seems to shrink in front of me. Her lip trembles, and she blinks back more tears.
“I spent all this time thinking that no one loved me, that I had no one in this world,” she says, her voice shaking. “And my mother’s body was left in the forest for the wild animals to tear apart.”
“I was heartbroken when I found her,” I say. “I was trying to get to both of you in time. I didn’t know exactly what I was going to do, but I had to keep you safe. When I found Laura and lost your scent… it ripped me in two.”
My voice catches in my throat, and my hand slips off her cheek. I’ve let out so much of my pain that I feel hollow. As if now that it’s gone, there’s nothing left inside me.
I feel Lexa’s hand on my cheek and look up into her eyes. To my surprise, she’s smiling.
“Thank you,” she says. “Thank you for finding her, taking care of her… and looking for me.”
“But I didn’t find you!” I cry, grabbing her shoulders. “Horrible things happened to you, and I let it happen! It’s my fault!”
“No, baby, no,” she whispers, shaking her head. “It’s not your fault.”
She leans forward and presses her lips to mine. I wrap my arms around her and pull her close to me, as if I’m trying to convince myself she’s real. Lexa writhes in my arms, squirming off the couch until she practically falls into my lap.
We fall on the floor, tumbling against each other. Lexa laughs and rolls over, flipping herself on top of me.
“No, Lexa,” I whisper. “I don’t deserve this. I don’t deserve you.”
“That might be true,” she says with just a hint of humor. “But do you really think I’m going to let you get away now?”
She leans down and kisses me, pressing my shoulders into the floor with both hands. The kiss deepens, and my body comes alive, snapping tight like an electric wire.
“Are you sure?” I ask.
She pauses to give me a nod. “I thought I had nothing, and no one,” she says. “Now I know you were always there, caring for me, looking for me. I always had a safe place. I just didn’t know where it was.”
The moment stretches out between us, and a new emotion swells inside me, filling up all the space left behind after my confession.
“Lexa, I love you,” I say.
She smiles, stroking my hair and looking into my eyes.
“I love you, too, Kit,” she says.
When her lips meet mine again, there is an urgency in her, a growing need, as if all her inhibitions are finally coming completely undone. As her walls come crashing down, passion ignites in me, more than mere lust or desire.
For the first time, we are truly together, with no lies or secrets between us.
Now, we are truly one.
Chapter 23 - Lexa
Kit squirms on the floor, pinned between my knees. I grip his shoulders with my hands and lean into the kiss, punishing his lips with mine.
I feel loose, and maybe a bit crazy. The last twenty minutes have contained more revelations than the entirety of my life. It feels like falling down a flight of stairs and standing up completely unscathed.
I’m not, though. I’m covered in scars.
All these wounds I have to carry in my heart still hurt me, but being here in Kit’s arms makes all of them fade. I’ve had years to work through my loss, and the greatest regret I had about my mother is that her body would lie out in the woods, discarded and forgotten.
