When I pull back, I catch the shine of tears in Violet’s eyes. In all our years together, I can count on one hand the number of times I’ve seen my sister cry.
“I’m proud of you, you know that?”
“Whatever good is in me exists because of you,” I say, meaning every single word. “I love you.”
“I love you too, Pip. Now get out. I’m fucking freezing, and I want to get back to my hot rabbi.” At my confused look, she lets out a laugh. “It’s this show on Netflix—just go, you idiot.”
I step back into the biting cold, bags in hand, ready to march back to the house because I’m not leaving. Not even if he tries to drive me down this mountain himself.
But just as I reach the door, it swings open, and there he is—my cowboy—standing there in his coat and hat with his truck keys dangling between his fingers.
“Piper… What?—”
“Where are you going?” I ask as I stare up at him, the glow of the porch light haloing his broad shoulders.
“That wasn’t gonna be our last conversation. I refuse to let that be our ending.” My heart stutters at the sight of him standing there, chest heaving, eyes wild like he’s been tearing himself apart over everything that happened. “Fuck, I can’t let you go.”
“You were coming after me?” The tears I thought I’d run dry start falling again because Christian Crawford doesn’t love halfway.
He loves recklessly and with his whole heart.
The way he works.
The way he fights.
The way he fucks.
The way he loves leaves nothing behind, and somehow, I was still ready to walk away from that.
“Ten seconds after you walked out that door, I knew there was noway in hell I was letting you go without a fight.” His eyes move from my face to my bags, and I know Violet’s still sitting in her car because like hell would she miss this show. “Wait, what are you… Did you leave something?”
My heart threatens to burst right out of my chest as I look up at him because, yeah, I left something behind. I left the man who makes me feel more alive in the way he looks at me than I’ve felt in twenty-three years of breathing.
“I left you.” The words scratch my throat on their way out. “And I’m so fucking sorry I walked out that door.”
He catches my wrist and spins me around, backing me up until my spine hits the rough wood of the porch wall. His breath fans across my cheek, while his hands bracket my hips like he’s holding on for dear life.
“You don’t get to say that and leave again. You don’t get to rip me open and walk away a second time.”
The sound of Violet’s car fades into the mountain silence, swallowed by the pine trees and night air, leaving us alone under a sky so full of stars that it looks like the universe has flung fistfuls of diamonds across black velvet.
“I’m not going anywhere,” I whisper, searching his eyes that are almost black in the darkness, shining with a heartbreak so deep it nearly undoes me. But I know, right then, that I’m going to heal every fracture with the way I love him. “I promise, Christian. I’m yours if you’ll have me.”
The words are barely out of my mouth before he’s kissing me—desperate and hungry and full of everything we almost lost. I fist my hands in his jacket, pulling him closer and needing more. He presses me harder against the wall, every solid inch of him burning into me.
“You ruined me back there,” he growls against my throat, his lips trailing fire down the line of my jaw. “And now you’re gonna fix it.”
Chapter 22
Christian
Her mouth crashesinto mine like an apology and a promise wrapped in need, and I take it all. The stars burn softly overhead as I keep her pinned against the wall, the heat of her body making steam rise between us in the cold air. My hands slide up to frame her face, rough palms against soft skin, and my breath comes out in white puffs as I search those green eyes for her truth.
She stayed for me.
She’s here for me.
She’s fucking mine.