Page 84 of Fixing to Be Mine

“Yes,” he says with a laugh.

Our mouths find each other again and again, open and needy, lips swollen, tongues sliding in slow communion. His kiss is messy, almost like he’s apologizing and replacing every man before him who touched me like I was temporary. This feels like forever. Like I never want it to end.

Every sigh that leaves his chest, I feel against my ribs. Every moan I give him, he takes with gratitude and answers with more.

There is no part of me hidden under the stars. No mask. No angle for the media. I’m cut wide open for him, in my rawest form, and that’s the woman he wants.

My hands are in his hair. My spine arches into the next pump and the next, and he groans like he’s the one unraveling, not me.

“You feel so damn good,” he says in a hushed tone.

He slows his pace like he wants me to understand I’m falling apart for someone who won’t use me. I clutch at his shoulders and drop my guard, too gone to remember when I ever thought I wasn’t worthy of this. Of him. Of the way he whispers my name like it’s something worth keeping.

The thought takes hold, and I go rigid around him, inner muscles clenching in a way I can’t hide or control. He groans like he’s ruined and gives himself over to it too. Colt grinds deeper and harder, spilling and pumping into me. Every part of him is locked to me until we’re both shaking.

We stay that way, breathless, for as long as it takes for our hearts to stop tripping over themselves, and then he helps me clean up.

He shifts and pulls my naked body closer, arm beneath my shoulders, hand tracing my spine, like he’s counting vertebrae. I bury my face against his throat and laugh. I’m giddy and maybe a little unhinged as I float on cloud nine with him. He laughs, too, then kisses the top of my head. For a long while, neither of us says anything. There’s only the sound of our heartbeats and ragged breaths and laughter.

We crossed a line that can never be uncrossed. And tonight, I gave him parts of myself no one had ever had.

Eventually, he props up on one elbow and looks at me like he’s searching for something specific. Whatever it is, he finds it because his mouth goes soft at the edges, his gaze unguarded. His thumb brushes over my cheek, following the damp trail beneath my eye. It’s overwhelming to experience this with a man I barely know, a man who seems to understand me better than anyone in my life. It’s the first time I’ve cried in years, but it’s from pure happiness.

“Stormy?” he asks, like he’d burn the world down for me.

I kiss his pulse on his neck, feeling his heartbeat beneath my lips. “I’ve never—” I’m not sure how to finish. He waits patiently. “This is all very new for me.”

A smile tugs at his mouth before he steals a sweet kiss. “Love to hear it, darlin’. Hope you have the time of your life with me.”

“You’ll catch me if I fall too hard?”

“Every damn time,” he confesses.

His fingers are in my hair as my thumb brushes across his cheek.

By the sparkle in his eyes, I know this wasn’t sex, and this isn’t an escape for me. This is trust and a sacred kind of knowing that we have found what we were searching for in one another. And the thought of that scares me shitless.

CHAPTER TWENTY

COLT

The night wraps around us like it’s trying to eavesdrop, the stars out in full above the pond. There’s something holy about being with her like this. It’s like the world paused long enough for us to carve out a piece of forever.

We get dressed and watch the fire with her comfortably on my lap. Stormy sighs with content, like she finally stopped fighting herself.

What we shared was a huge decision we made together, and there is no going back.

I’ve got one hand resting on her thigh, the other holding her steady, not because she’s about to fall, but because I’m not ready to let her go yet. I watch the way her fingers move slowly over the inside of my forearm, tracing the veins. I’m not sure she even realizes she’s doing it. I hold her a little tighter, kissing her hair, and notice her breathing has evened out.

Her walls aren’t down; they’re gone.

For a minute, we don’t talk. We just sit and watch the fire fading in front of us. The night carries on like nothing has changed, but I have. All of me has. I didn’t know I was missing anything until she gave it to me. This feeling. This closeness.This reckless hope that maybe life can be more than plans and repairs and staying one step ahead of being left behind.

I press a soft kiss on her shoulder, where her dress has slightly fallen. She shifts closer, and that small movement undoes something in me that I didn’t realize was still wound tight. I’ve been with women before. I’ve touched skin and heard my name on someone’s breath. But I’ve never felt like this. Not once. Nothing even comes close. It scares me, but also excites me.

Stormy chose me.

Not as a hiding place, not as a distraction, but as her safety net.

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