Butterflies wreak havoc in my stomach, and I can’t tell if it is the rain running down my face or tears. Possibly both.
I slide my hand out to meet his. “You may.”
He pulls me in quickly, tight to his body, and I wrap my arms around his neck. Our eyes lock as the rain continues to pummel down around us, and we begin to dance in the middle of a Las Vegas street with thunder and the honking car horns the only music to guide us. The few people brave enough to venture out in the storm hurry past us like we’re crazy, but I don’t care.
This moment feels magical, just like something out of a Nicholas Sparks movie.
Phoenix spins me around, dipping me, and I throw my head back, laughing as the rain hits my face.
“You’re beautiful,” he states when he pulls me back against him, his voice barely audible over the sound of the storm.
“I’m soaked.”
“Beautiful,” he repeats firmly, and the way he’s looking at me makes me believe it.
We stay like this for a moment longer, just holding each other while the city rages around us, a blur of neon, thunder, and water. But the shiver that sneaks down my spine has nothing to do with him and everything to do with the chill creeping in.
Phoenix brushes my wet hair from my cheek. “Come on, Reel Girl. Let’s get you out of the storm before your teeth start chattering.”
I nod, reluctantly loosening my hold as he laces our fingers together, and we start moving again, leaving behind the impromptu dance floor we made in the middle of the street.
The rain hasn’t let up, but somehow, it feels softer now. Calmer.
Maybe because ofhim.
Phoenix squeezes my hand, and I glance up. He’s grinning, soaked to the bone, his shirt clinging to every line of muscle, his hair plastered across his forehead. He looks as if he walked straight out of a dream or one of my romance movies.
“What?” he asks when he catches me staring.
I shrug, smiling. “Just waiting for the soundtrack to kick in.”
He chuckles, pulling me closer as we dodge a splash from a passing cab. “I’ll hum something cheesy when we get back to the room.”
We finally reach The Strip again, the lights reflecting in shimmering puddles beneath our feet, the pavement flooding from the flat terrain and the lack of drainage, but it feels like the city is exhaling with us. The kind of exhale that comes after something you didn’t know you needed.
And as we walk, dripping, laughing, completely untethered, I realize I’ll remember this night forever.
Not because of the chaos or the rain.
But because in the middle of a storm, we found something that felt a hell of a lot like calm.
And when you belong to an MC, you don’t get calm very often.
The rain continues to fall as we make our way back toward the hotel, both of us drenched but neither caring. I feel alive in a way I’ve never experienced before. It’s as if every nerve ending is sparking with electricity. The rules I’ve lived by my whole life—be careful, be safe, be good—seem like relics from another person’s existence.
“I love you,” I tell him, the words carrying all the weight of everything I’m feeling. “Not just tonight, not just because of Vegas and the rain and the craziness. I loveyou,Phoenix. The man who researches my illnesses. The man who sings karaoke for my bucket list with me. The man who made a literal romance movie in the middle of the street for me. The man who married me in a chapel and meant every word of his vows.”
The expression on his face is so tender it takes my breath away. “Clover—”
“I know we’re going to have to go back to reality soon.” I continue, “I know there’s gonna be complications and drama and probably Maverick wanting to skin you alive. But right now, in this moment, I’m happier than I’ve ever been in my entire life.”
Phoenix frames my face with his hands, his thumbs brushing away the rain, or tears, I still can’t tell, from my cheeks. “You make me feel things I didn’t think I was capable of feeling,” he says quietly. “Hope. Joy. The possibility that I might actually deserve something good.”
“You deserveeverythinggood,” I tell him fiercely.“Everything, Wes.”
The second I say his name,his real name, something shifts.
His jaw tenses, his eyes darken, and then he crashes his mouth to mine like he’s drowning and I’m the only thing keepinghim afloat.
