Page 92 of A Voice In Chains
That day is now.
I swear my knees nearly buckle, but then he’s there in front of me, cupping my cheeks, his eyes boring into mine like he was never gone.
His hair is longer than when he left, but his eyes are the same piercing blue I used to drown in, and now, as the fairy lights flicker in their depths, I feel tears trailing down my cheeks.
“You’re back,” I choke out, not knowing where to touch him first. His arms have bulked up, his chest is firmer, and his hair is softer. I tug on it slightly to make sure he’s real—that this isn’t a dream I’ll wake up from.
Fuck, it’s going to hurt if I wake up from this.
This moment seems so real.
Gliding my fingers through his sharp scruff, I marvel at how real he feels.
This is real,I remind myself.Heis here.
“I was always coming back to you,” he whispers, stroking his thumbs over my cheeks. “I didn’t want to be the broken, scared boy I was. You deserve more.Wedeserve more. I had to go away and work on myself to return stronger, for youandus.”
“Don’t say that.” My voice is so choked I can barely get the words out. “I love all sides of you, Ark. It doesn’t matter if you’rebroken. I’ll glue you together myself as long as you’re here with me.”
He presses his forehead to mine, our lips so close that I can almost taste him. “Every day, I thought of you,” he whispers. “Every day, you were my guiding light. And I thought of us. Of all the conversations we’d have. Late nights in bed. Conversations in the light. A time when I wouldn’t crumble at the thought of talking to you in front of other people.”
“And now?” I ask.
Please don’t leave me again. I can’t handle it. I’ll give up my place at university in a heartbeat if it means I get to be with Arkin. Please, whatever is out there, God, energy, whatever, just please let me be with the boy I love.
“I told you. I was always coming back to you.”
I’m clutching his lapels now, desperate to crawl inside him and stay there, nestled deep in his heart where nothing or no one can tear us apart again.
If I sound clingy, I don’t care.
“I’m here,” he reassures me as if he can sense my tumultuous thoughts. “I’m never leaving you again.”
My heart beats so hard I’m lightheaded.
When I place my hand on his chest, feeling the hard muscle beneath his T-shirt, his own heart beats rapidly beneath my fingers.
“You did this for me?” I say quietly, referring to the fairy lights.
He lifts his head and looks around with a soft smile. A vagrant breeze drifts through the abbey ruins, sifting through the strung lights, the soft glow dancing over his sharp features.
As his blue eyes settle on my face again, the dimples on his cheeks deepen. “This isourplace, remember?”
He kisses me then, and it’s everything I’ve ever dreamed it would be. All the nights I laid awake picturing this moment, thetimes I brought myself to release thinking of Arkin—it’s all of those fantasies, yet so much more, in vivid high definition.
Softly, his mouth brushes against mine, his tongue darting out to trail the seam of my lips before he cups the back of my head and attacks my lips with fervor.
Short of climbing him like a tree, I sink my fingers into his hair, mussing it up.
We kiss until my lips are numb, and my heart slowly pieces itself back together as our tongues war for dominance.
It must hurt him when I pull this hard on his hair, but he gives as good as he gets, devouring me like he’s lain awake dreaming of this moment, too, equally tortured and haunted by our memories and the abrupt end we suffered.
I’ve barely gotten him out of my system after suffering a yearlong withdrawal, and now he’s back, coursing through my veins like cocaine. I can’t get enough. I don’twantto get enough.
When I try to remove his coat, yanking it down his shoulders, he stops me with his hands on my wrists.
Confused, heart bruised and a little afraid, our eyes clash.
