Page 98 of Clean Slade
“I don’t know. Because…because I couldn’t ever look at you and see a monster. Because I care about you. Because whenever I’m with you, the only thing I want is to protect you, to erase the world and those who would dare hurt you.”
It all sounded so pretty, so tender, so human.
I wished it were true. I wished I could believe it. I wished I could believe that there was someone in this world who wouldn’t care about my past and the clash with my present.
“You don’t mean that,” I said.
“Stop telling me what I mean and just listen to me, Kingston. I don’t know what it is. I don’t know if it’s a spell, magic, fate, or luck, but I like you. I like you a lot. And I would burn the world for you.”
He leaned in an inch, waited a moment, and when I didn’t flinch, he closed the distance between us, bringing our mouths together, and I let him kiss me. I let him show me that he meant what he’d said with the tenderness and intensity of his lips on mine and the way he held me.
I dipped my forehead to his and took a deep breath, looking at our joined hands and trying to force down the tears that stung my eyes.
“You don’t want to do that, trust me.”
“I think I just did,” he whispered.
“People…people who get close to me have a tendency to die. I wouldn’t want to do that to you.”
“Doesn’t your father already think I’m your boyfriend?”
I looked up and nodded so gently that I barely moved.
“Did you correct him?” I shook my head. “Then it’s too late anyway. I’d rather die with you than without you.”
And his lips reunited with mine, tasting bitter from my tears and sweet from his words. I couldn’t resist it any longer. I couldn’t deny him any longer. I’d wanted him from the moment I’d set my eyes on him nine years ago.
I’d wanted him from the moment I’d seen him again at the Outpost.
I’d needed him every day since, but suddenly, all the reasons I couldn’t succumb—danger, secrets, distractions, past—none of them mattered anymore.
All that mattered was Slade and me.
TWENTY-THREE
SLADE
It was him.
If there was ever any doubt, there was none now.
And just like that, kissing him again felt like we’d never stopped.
Wasn’t that crazy?
Wasn’t it peculiar that an encounter—if you could even call it that—could mark me so utterly that the mere act of reuniting with him made me feel like…
Like I was finally home?
It shouldn’t be like this. It shouldn’t work like this. It wasn’t how people fell in love or acted in real life, right?
Or had I been lied to? Had we all been lied to our entire lives and love could be a million little things, different for everyone.
Was it possible you could love someone like a soulmate when you barely knew them?
It didn’t feel like that though. Ididknow him.
I knew the shape of his eyes almost by heart. Even if I were to lose my sight, I’d be able to draw them perfectly.
