Page 183 of California Wild

He didn’t respond right away, just kept looking at her, like he was weighing something, turning it over in his mind.

She swallowed. “You did too, last night.”

His lips pressed together, just slightly. “I did.”

She sighed, shaking her head, smiling. “I have to admit, Jesse—I’ve imagined us saying those words a thousand times, in a thousand different ways. But never, ever, in my wildest dreams did I think it would happen like this.”

“So… casually?”

“Exactly.” She lifted a brow. “Like it was no big deal. Like, of course, I love you. Of course, you love me. Just words. Like we haven’t been through hell.”

Jesse smirked faintly. “I get your point.”

“We’ve gone from zero to sixty recently.”

“And that makes you scared?” he asked.

“Naturally.” She studied him. “Not you?”

His jaw tightened slightly before he exhaled. “I think you know the answer to that.”

She did.

But what she wasn’t expecting was what he said next.

“I made myself a promise… this last deployment,” Jesse said, running a hand over his jaw. “That I wasn’t going to run scared from this anymore.”

Hayley’s stomach flipped. “From what?”

His throat bobbed. “From love.”

The word hung between them, a living thing, fragile, waiting.

His lips curled slightly, but there was something sad in his expression.

“You know how many times someone has said it to me?” he asked quietly. “That they love me?”

Her heart clenched. “Jesse, I don’t think I want to hear that answer.”

He exhaled slowly. “I’ve spent my whole life learning how to survive. Learning how to fight, how to push through, how to keep moving forward even when everything inside me wanted to shut down. But what I’ve realized?” He lifted his gaze to hers. “Fear has driven so many of my choices. And I don’t want to be that kid anymore.”

Hayley’s fingers tightened around the warm ceramic of the tea mug, her throat tight.

“Who do you want to be?” she whispered.

Jesse held her gaze. “The man you need.”

Chapter 28

Jesse didn’t think—he moved. The tea mug barely hit the nightstand before his mouth was on hers, swallowing her gasp with a kiss so deep it sent heat crashing through his veins. His body surged over hers, pressing her back into the pillows, one knee sliding between her thighs, his hand cradling her jaw.

“Jesus, Hayley…” he rasped, pulling back just far enough to look at her—flushed, lips parted, eyes dark. “You don’t know what you do to me.”

Her hands clawed at his shoulders, dragging him back down. “Show me.”

And he did.

He kissed her like it was survival, like her mouth was the only place he could breathe. Tongue stroking hers, slow and filthy. She moaned into him and that sound—fuck, that sound—madehim lose control all over again. He shifted over her, rolling his hips into hers, the thin barrier of fabric nothing compared to the heat pooling between them.

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