Page 198 of Hold Me Until Morning

Cody just held me tighter, his nose dropping close to mine. “I’ve made a million mistakes in my life, but standing here, with you? For you? That’s not one of them. Because when you love someone the way I love you? You don’t bail when things get rough. You stand closer to them in their battles. You pick them up when they fall. You carry them when they can’t run. You love them with all you’ve got because they are the very meaning of time. Because you and Maddie are the reason I’m living it. You are the sun setting and the sun rising. Every minute. Every second. Every fucking beat.”

I swayed beneath the power of his words.

Beneath the power of his touch.

His hand slipped down to the side of my neck, his words harsh and sweet. “You got me, Hailey. You’ve got all of me.”

“Cody.” I rasped over his name.

The emotion I’d been trying to hold back burst free.

Got loose of the sacred place I’d tried to keep it shored.

Where guilt had lived.

But it couldn’t thrive there anymore.

“I love you, Cody. I love you so much, and there is a piece of me that always has. I tried not to, to deny it, to ignore what I always felt, but I don’t think there was a way to stop myself from falling in love with you.”

Playfulness kicked up at the edge of his mouth. “Well, I’m pretty impossible not to love.”

I choked over a soggy laugh, and my chest squeezed as I gazed up at his rough, masculine beauty.

At his battered face and his flawless heart.

“You’re right. It’s impossible. It’s impossible not to love you.”

His expression intensified. “You’re it for me.”

I gulped around the love that rushed. “Good because I won’t let you go.”

Because of it, I knew what I had to do. I was terrified of it, but I couldn’t let Pruitt get away with his cruelty. Couldn’t let him continue spreading his wickedness in the world.

He needed to be stopped.

And it was time we were free.

“Now that we got that cleared up.” Mischief played across Cody’s face, sparks flickering like greed in those gold-flecked eyes, right before he crushed his mouth against mine.

This kiss was searing.

A mark.

A brand.

A claiming.

I wanted it.

I wanted him written all over me.

On every inch of my body and in every recess of my heart.

But I was also brutally aware that he had almost died today.

“We can’t,” I urged against the force of his kiss.

Cody pulled back, still holding onto both sides of my face, mouth cocked in that smirk.

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