Page 116 of Catching My Dreams

She felt sick at the thought of being tied to him for an hour, let alone forever. She shook her head to clear that chilling idea from her mind.

“I’m so sorry Olivia got caught in the crossfire. I hate that she got hurt because of me.”

“She’s perfectly fine,” Noah reassured her. He swallowed and rested his free hand on her cheek, his thumb grazing the corner of her lip. “She told me what you did for her.”

“I didn’t do anything.”

“You traded yourself for her,” Noah said. “And as much as I hate that it put you in danger, I also love you for doing it.”

“Anyone else would have done the same.”

Noah shook his head. “No, they wouldn’t have.” And then he was leaning down to press his lips against hers.

The kiss started off soft and sweet, but as soon as Ella’s lips parted, Noah snapped, his tongue delving into her mouth and urgently brushing against her own. Ella groaned.

She hadn’t showered since the attack, her hair was a greasy mess, and she was wearing a hospital gown that nobody could ever look attractive in, but Noah kissed her like she was the most beautiful girl in the world. Like he could never get enough of her.

And Ella kissed him back like he was the sun and she’d been living in darkness for an eternity. Like he was air and she’d been drowning. Like she needed him. Because she did. Being without him for those three weeks had been a slow kind of torture.

“Fuck, I missed you,” Noah whispered breathlessly against her lips. “You have no clue how much.”

Ella smiled. “I think I have some idea.”

She wrapped a hand behind his neck and yanked him back down, slamming their mouths together. Their breaths mingled as their lips collided again and again. They’d been through hell together to get to where they were now, but it was all worth it to have him back.

This was the man she knew and loved. The man who’d broken her heart and put it back together, who’d leaped in front of a knife for her. The man who’d been so worried about her that he’d driven by her house every morning to make sure she was okay. The man who’d killed for her, to make sure she never had to be afraid again.

The man who loved her better than anyone else ever had.

34

“I need to go, Dad,” Ella said into the phone, her gaze fixed on the snow falling outside. “I need to get ready before our friends arrive.”

“Alright. Have fun,” he replied. “Merry Christmas, Ella. We love you.”

“Love you too,” she said, the words sounding forced.

Her parents had arrived at the hospital after Brett’s attack in a panicked flurry, the two of them showing far more concern for her than they ever had, but things were still far from perfect between them and Ella.

Case in point, they’d flown off only two weeks after she’d been released from the hospital and were spending Christmas in Prague without her.

Ella found she didn’t care as much about their constant absence, though. She would take their rare phone calls, but she’d stopped phoning them altogether. Had stopped trying to force herself into their lives. Had stopped thinking that she was lacking somehow because they didn’t ever stick around.

It was their loss, and she no longer gave a damn whether or not they were around for Christmas.

They were her parents, but they weren’t her family in the same way that her gran was. In the way that Asher, Noah, Riley, and Chris had become. She hadn’t forgiven, and she hadn’t forgotten, but she’d moved on from being the person who craved their attention and love.

“Merry Christmas,” she added before hanging up.

“You okay?” Noah asked, coming up behind her and wrapping his arms around her waist.

Ella smiled, her eyes moving from the blanket of snow covering the front yard and settling on the Christmas tree in the corner of the living room. They’d decorated it together, arguing over whether or not it should have tinsel and if the star topping it was straight or leaning ever so slightly to the left. It had been the most fun Ella had ever had during the Christmas holidays.

“Perfect,” she replied, letting her head fall back against his chest.

She still had the odd nightmare about Brett, she’d wake up every so often and feel a phantom pair of eyes on her before she remembered he was gone, and her dreamwalking hadn’t stopped. But she was better than she’d been in…well, forever.

She was even confident that she’d done well in her final exams despite her lackluster academic performance during the semester. It was amazing how much a few nights of decent sleep could help a person’s mental wellbeing.

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