Page 123 of Female Fantasy
Warmth spreads through my stomach. “You know what? I think I might actually be starting to.”
“Good.”
He leans in for a second, his eyes searching mine, before pulling away again.
Unsure.
“Nico?”
“Yeah?” His voice is barely a breath.
“Just because I don’t need you”—I cup the side of his face, using my thumb to trace the edge of his stubbled jaw—“doesn’t mean I don’t want you.”
He doesn’t blink.
He doesn’t even breathe.
“You called me the man you love.”
Suddenly shy, I turn away, biting the inside of my cheek. “I did.”
“Look at me, Joonie.”
I do, and what I see steals all the oxygen from my lungs.
Nico’s cheeks are flushed, his eyes wide with adoration. With hope.
“Did you mean it?” he asks.
I nod. “You were right. I was too focused on my fairy-tale ending to see what was right in front of me.”
I lift my lips to his forehead and kiss him lightly there.
“Even though I’m not your Prince Charming?”
His body is so still. It’s as if he’s worried he might spook me.
I bring my lips to his ear. “Especially because you’re not my Prince Charming.”
“I’m still the same guy, Joon,” he warns. “Once the adrenaline wears off, you might not want me. I’m still a grouch and a cynic. Like, I’m fully investing in space travel in case the Earthruns out of natural resources and we need to start a colony on another planet. I can be an anxious mess sometimes. And mean to myself. And to others. Even when I don’t mean it, when I don’t want to be. What if I say something wrong and accidentally break your heart? What if we fight and resent each other and never speak again? I don’t know if I could live with myself if my darkness absorbed all your light. Because that’s what you are, Joonie. Pure, radiant light. Always have been.”
“Nico?”
He stops ranting long enough to look at me.
And the moment he does, I lean in and kiss him.
His lips are soft against mine, and he tastes both sweet and smoky and so incredibly like himself that I almost cry out. And when his tongue teases the seam of my mouth, I open up, and our tongues tangle. He nibbles on my lower lip, and I can’t hold back a groan.
I try to convey everything I want to say with my kiss. That I was wrong to pursue someone I’d never even met, convinced he was my soul mate. Because it doesn’t matter if my relationship with Nico isn’t perfect. I’m not looking for smooth sailing anymore, but someone I want stuck on the ship, who will weather the storms alongside me. We can argue and disagree, and as long as we respect each other, we’ll communicate our way through it.
I am ready to earn my happily ever after with Nico.
When I pull away, panting, he’s studying me with disbelief. As if I’m a revelation.
The fanfic writer in me whispers,He’s your loch.
And at that exact moment, I swear to the holy Furnace, to the Fates, to Amphitrite herself, that Nico begins to glow.
