Page 33 of Meet Me In The Dark

God, he needed to listen. She lowered her voice. “I don’t want this, youknowI don’t. The very idea of letting anyone else touch me makes me want to die.”

“So then don’t do it,” Micah argued.

She held a hand up. “But I’m willing to, if it means getting their location and getting them free. I told you I need to help. Let mehelp.”

He shook his head. “This isn't me being possessive and territorial, Kara. This is me keeping you safe. What was the point of their sacrifice, if I can't keep you safe?”

This time, Kara wanted to inhale through her teeth. Micah, usually the most reasonable one of them, was being completely unreasonable.

“If there were any other way, I’d jump at the option. But I can’t not do this. I can’t not do anything. I’ll never forgive myself, if something happens to them, knowing I had a way to save them but didn’t do it. What is it worth, you all promising to keep me safe, if I can't keep you safe, too?” she asked.

“So I'm supposed to what, stand here and watch?”

There was something working behind his storm-cloud eyes, something she couldn’t quite read. It wasn’t jealousy, or possession, or even protectiveness. No, he wanted something from her. Something she wasn’t giving him.

But sheneededthis from him.

“No. You help me. You help me by following through on your words and actually trusting me. For once, I need you to followmylead.”

He eyed her. “Give me something, then. Why are you doing this?”

“What?” She gaped at him. What the hell was he talking about?

“Do you want to save Luke and Conor because you feel responsible for them?”

“You know it’s more than that. I’d do anything to save them, to keep them safe. You, too.”

He wrapped his hands around her face, tilting it up toward his, so his next words were a breath away from her lips.

“I need the words, Kara.”

She swallowed. There was no reason for her to keep it back, not anymore. Even though they had an audience. “Youknow. You know why I’d do anything to keep you all safe, why I can’t bear the thought of you hurt, why imagining what’s happening to them right now…” she trailed off, her stomach churning. “It makes me sick. If the words help, I love you. I love all three of you. I didn’t think I was capable of loving anyone again, but it turns out I didn’t love Chris, I was infatuated. This is what love feels like, like I can’t breathe until they’re safe, and we’re all together again.”

That same thing behind his eyes was working, double time. And she knew what it was:

longing.

He didn’t want the words from her, he couldn’t exist without them.

The realization galvanized her. “I’ve been running and running my entire life, afraid my guilt and regret would catch up with me,” she said, softly. “It never occurred to me to run toward something. Turns out, I needed you all to catch me. I love you.”

It was funny, almost: for so long, she’d buried those words—from them, from herself. When she’d admitted her feelings to Billy, she felt lighter. But now she’d said them directly to Micah, it was like the weight was finally lifted.

Like she was…free.

And then Micah was kissing her and kissing her, devouring her with sweetness and promises and need. She surrendered to it, to him, letting him catch her and keep her heart safe. The room seemed to spin around her, everything, including Victor, disappearing, until they could have been anywhere and nowhere all at once. It didn’t matter, as long as she had him.

Finally, he pulled away, dropping a kiss on her forehead. “Sweet baby girl, I could say a million words about how much I love you, and they still wouldn’t be enough. When you sent me that note that Christmas Eve, you changed my life in ways I couldn’t fathom, and I never want to go back. I love you, Kara.”

Before she could kiss him again, Victor coughed. She looked over at him. Even from a short distance, she could see his eyes gleaming. He’d overheard their moment together, and instead of being annoyed he’d lost their attention, he reveled in it. Found some sick sort of glee in it. He didn’t just want to fuck her for the sake of fucking her, or because he had some weird FOMO, or even just because he hated women and reducing her to no more than her partsmade him feel powerful. No, he thought he could destroy their bond.

Too bad it was indestructible.

“Kara, I trust you. I’ll follow your lead,” Micah said. “It’ll kill me to watch him touch you, but I’ll do it.”

An idea occurred to her. “What if he’s not only touching me? What if you’re not just watching?”

A grim smile formed on Micah’s face. He nodded, releasing her face from where he’d cradled it in his hands, and turned to look at Victor.

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