Page 215 of Sinful Desires
She shook her head gently, then rose onto her toes and pressed a kiss to my mouth.
“Travis was grieving the man he loved,” she said quietly. “And he used that grief to hurt someone he blamed.”
She looked up at me, her eyes red.
“I can’t say I’d be any different. If something happened to you, Théo?…” She paused, fingers caressing my back. “I’d lose whatever’s left of me too.”
I cupped her face.
My thumbs dragged along her cheeks, slowly, possessively, as if I could imprint myself onto her skin.
“No,” I whispered. “You wouldn’t lose yourself, baby.”
I leaned in until our foreheads touched.
“You’d survive, Scarlett. Because you always do. But you’d be carrying me in it. In every breath. Every scar. Every fucking smile that doesn’t reach your eyes.”
I paused, letting my lips hover just over hers.
“I’d be there within you cheering you on.”
A soft sob left her lips.
“You’d get through it, because that’s what you do. You survive what most people never come back from. And you still manage to look beautiful doing it.”
I tilted her chin up.
“You don’t even see it. But I do. That strength inside you. That fire. And it fucking undoes me.”
I kissed her, sealing something between us. A promise she was making to me, whether she realized it or not.
She closed her eyes, and I felt her tremble beneath my hands.
“That’s the girl I kneel for.”
My voice cracked then, barely more than a breath.
“I’d follow you through lifetimes, through death, through whatever darkness dares to take you from me. I’ll go first, Scarlett. But I’ll still crawl after your light, even if it scorches me all the way through hell.”
She nodded slightly before I turned off the shower.
I helped her out and dried her off. “Want me to dry your hair too?”
“Do you even know how?”
My mouth twitched as I grabbed the hairdryer.
“I’ve stitched flesh and snapped bones back into place. How hard can this be?”
She gave me a look. “This isn’t the military.”
“Doesn’t matter. I’m still the best at whatever I do.”
She almost smiled.“Try not to set my scalp on fire.”
“I promise.”
Turns out, I was shit at it.Still, I dried most of it, then braided it the way she liked, fingers tugging too tightly, but steady.
