Page 84 of Even if You Fall

My heart stuttered before taking off at an unforgiving pace at the stunning declaration. Because I knew those words weren’t a superficial statement tossed out by someone who didn’t know their meaning. Adam understood their weight. He was haunted by the aftermath. And he’d do it all over again...for me.

And that...thatI understood. Wholeheartedly. It wasn’t any less terrifying than what he’d vowed to me that morning, but I understood it.

I placed my hand over the thunderous beating against his own chest and whispered, “And here I thought you hated me, Superman.”

The corner of his mouth twitched. “Tried to,” he teased before capturing my lips. The kiss was soft and slow but no less passionate, as if he was sealing every one of his promises with the kiss alone, and it had my body buzzing and my world spinning in the best possible way.

“Talk to me,” he begged against my lips. When I just looked up at him as he pulled away, slightly dazed from the kiss, he prompted, “What else were you thinking?”

“Oh.” A breathless laugh tumbled free as I tried to reorient my thoughts. “Um, nothing. Nothing; that was it, except I wished we hadn’t had to leave.” I lifted my shoulders. “I wanted more time with your family.”

A smile lazily pulled at the corners of his mouth before he stole another kiss—this one firm and quick. “I’ll take you back there,” he vowed. “Soon.”

My eyes widened at the implication because Adam and I weren’t, well,anything, and as I’d already found out, not justanyonecould be taken back to his parents’.

But before I could ask ifherealized what he was saying—if he wassure—he gently turned me so my back was pressed to the truck. Caging me in and brushing his mouth across mine, teasing me and making me lean in to get more of the feather-soft kiss. “Can you wait until Christmas? Or should we make a trip for Thanksgiving?”

Amusement bubbled from me as I playfully pushed him back. “Considering your parents’ rules, I’d say you’re awfully sure of something that hasn’t even started.”

His smile turned downright sinful. “Bubbles...we started the second I began choking on that donut. It just took me a minute to realize it and stop fighting againstthis.”

Curling my hand against his shirt, I pulled him toward me again, accepting the next kiss eagerly?—

And jolting when Cameron barked, “Thatch.”

Adam shifted back just enough for me to see the enjoyment in his eyes, then cleared his throat. “On my way,” he told Cameron without ever turning around.

I glanced over his shoulder at the giant Viking in time for him to say, “I need him, Chloe.”

“Yes, sir,” I said seriously, then halfheartedly shoved at Adam’s chest when he pulled me closer. “You need to go,” I weakly reprimanded as he drew me in for one last kiss that I immediately melted into.

Slow and perfect, assuring and powerful, and enough to make my knees weak.

“Stay close,” he said once it ended, switching into Shadow Adam mode, then finally opened the passenger door and grabbed our bags. “If you need your phone for anything, let me know. Otherwise, we need it in case Vance reaches out to you.”He glanced at me as he shut the door with his elbow. “That okay?”

I gave a little shrug. “I don’t need it for anything. My parents think I’m in Aruba, so they won’t be calling.”

He nodded absentmindedly as he searched my face as if he was trying to memorize it. With a determined exhale, he said, “Let’s go.”

I followed him into the house, winding through until we stumbled upon where the rest of the Shadow crew sat around the large dining table—laptops, tablets, drinks, and food scattered everywhere.

“Take long enough?” Mallory asked from where she was staring at a laptop, but the corner of her mouth was twitching with amusement.

“‘You have bewitched me, body and soul,’” Hudson began, then grabbed my hand and twirled me into his arms like we were on a ballroom floor. Giving me a devilishly handsome smile once I settled against his chest and was sure I wasn’t going to fall over, thanks to the unexpected spin and my heels, he continued the quote in—what I was sure was—his swooniest drawl, “‘And I love, I love, I love you.’”

My head tilted back with a laugh as he went on.

“‘I never wish to be parted from you from this day on.’”

“Relentless,” I said as I pushed against his chest, trying to free myself.

“Nerd,” he tossed back just as playfully.

Before Hudson and I could fully separate from each other, I was pulled away and abruptly settled against a steel wall of a chest. The tattooed arm wrapped firmly and possessively around my waist did the wildest things to my heart and my fluttering stomach.

Whether the reaction was more from the act itself, the intention behind it, or that Adam was boldly claiming me infront of the people he admired most, I wasn’t sure. I also wasn’t sure I cared because...swoon.

But before I could clear my romance-loving mind enough to tease Hudson about the quote, Adam asked, “You sure you wanna do this?” his voice dark and low and startling me.

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