Page 153 of Jesse's Girl

I feel torn in half and sewn back together all at once. Raw.

He breaks the kiss and smooths the hair back from my forehead, then brushes his nose against mine.

“I love you,” I whisper.

He exhales hard.

“I love you,” I say again, pressing kisses to his cheeks, his forehead, his nose. “I love you.”

I repeat it again and again, breathing my love for him against his lips. I feel like I’m dying—like the words are the only thing keeping me alive.

“I love you, Jesse. I’m so sorry. I should’ve told you before, and I?—”

“I love you too.” His voice wavers. “Ada, I’m so fucking in love with you that I don’t know what to do with myself.” He clenches his jaw and shakes his head. “I couldn’t go. The thought physically hurt.”

“Are you sure, though? You’re giving up so much. I can’t ask you to do that. I wouldn’t?—”

He cups my cheek. “Nothing in Australia is important to me. Not like this. Not like you and me.”

“But you love your job.”

“I don’t,” he says. “I might have made it sound a bit better than it is.” Guilt furrows his brow. “The reality is, it’s long hours and really fucking hard work. And… Ada, I thought I’d built a life there, but I wasn’t living. I was just existing. But now?” He presses his lips together.

I exhale and a tear slips down my cheek.

“My heart didn’t break when I thought about leaving my job. But it almost broke thinking about leaving you.” Emotion clouds his eyes and he pauses to collect himself. “I’d been thinking about staying, but then you told me to go, and… I guess it wasn’t until Marcus gave us his blessing that I realized… I could have a life here again. With you.” He kisses me softly. “So I’m not going anywhere. I’m yours, if you’ll have me. If you want me to stay.”

Another tear spills over my cheek and I smile. “Yes. Stay. God, please stay.”

His relief is potent. He wipes the tear away with his thumb and kisses me again.

“I’ve never seen you cry before,” I say.

“I’ve never been this scared before.” He exhales hard through a smile, and cradles my face in both hands. “Or this relieved.”

Tell me about it.

I touch his cheek. “I can’t believe you passed out on the stairs.”

He rolls his shoulders and winces. “My back can sure fucking believe it.”

“Shit, sorry,” I say on a laugh. I move to climb off his lap, but he tightens his grip on me, shaking his head.

“Don’t you fucking move. I’m not letting you go yet.”

I give him a soft smile and kiss him again.

I never want to stop kissing him.

“Why didn’t you wake me up?”

“I wasn’t going to just skulk into your bedroom like a weird lurker.” He smirks.

“I actually thought you might be hiding somewhere inside… like you were gonna leap out of a closet and scare the shit out of me.”

He laughs. “Well, nothing says I love you like a jump scare.”

I smile just hearing him say it again, and my gaze falls to his chest.

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