Total pages in book: 87
Estimated words: 85585 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 428(@200wpm)___ 342(@250wpm)___ 285(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 85585 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 428(@200wpm)___ 342(@250wpm)___ 285(@300wpm)
“Really?” She searches my eyes, uncertainty flickering in hers, as if she finds the idea difficult to believe.
“Yes.” There’s zero hesitation in my response. “I love showering you with pleasure and knowing I’m the only one who gets to make you feel that way.”
She shifts closer, her fingers tracing slow, idle patterns along my rib cage. “You’re not like anyone I’ve ever been with.”
“I hope that’s a good thing.”
Her cheeks flush with color. “It is. I like the way you make me feel. With you… I don’t have to be anyone other than myself.”
Something inside me stills before clicking into place. It doesn’t feel like a decision so much as an undeniable truth.
“Kitten,” I murmur, pulling her closer, “I wouldn’t want you to be anyone else. Not ever.”
Even as I hold her, I realize it’s still not enough.
Because this woman has uncaged something in me—a need, a protectiveness, a depth of feeling I locked away years ago. I buried it beneath responsibility and routine. Beneath the parts of my life that demanded I be steady and controlled, even when everything inside me secretly longed for more.
I’d convinced myself I didn’t need it.
Didn’t want it.
That it was easier to live without.
And now that it’s been released, there’s no chaining it back up again. No forcing it into the shadows or pretending it doesn’t exist when it’s already wrapped around my ribs, taking root in the space between my heartbeat and my breath.
And there’s no denying what it wants.
Her.
Only her.
Just when I think Kia has drifted back to sleep, she murmurs, “I feel safe with you.”
The quiet admission hits harder than anything else she could’ve said. Harder than the way her body fits perfectly against mine. Harder than the way she looks at me, like she trusts me with the parts of herself no one else gets to see.
Steadiness and consistency are what I’ve always had to offer. They’re also the things my ex once called suffocating, as if my devotion was a heavy weight instead of a gift.
So, I learned to temper and hide those parts of myself. To soften the edges of my instinct to protect, pretending I didn’t need to hold on so tightly, even when it was the only way I knew how to love.
But Kia doesn’t see that as a flaw.
She leans into my natural instincts.
Into me.
After a beat, I drag my fingers lightly up and down her back. “We should probably decide what we’re going to tell people.”
Her head lifts slightly from my chest. “About us getting married?”
I nod. “People are going to ask questions. Your family. The team. The media when this gets out.” My hand skims over her waist. “We don’t have to tell them more than you’re comfortable with, but I think the simplest answer is the truth.”
She studies me in the dim light. “Which is?”
“That we fell hard for each other,” I say quietly. “And getting married just made sense.”
Her lips part, and for a moment she only looks at me.
“That’s what you’d tell them?” she whispers.
“It’s what I’d tell anyone.” I brush a strand of hair from her cheek. “Because it’s the truth.”
Something softens in her expression before she tucks herself back against me.
Her breath is warm against my chest, her body relaxed and trusting, like she’s no longer waiting for the other shoe to drop or bracing for the moment I pull away. It won’t take her long to figure out that’s not the kind of man I am. Once she gives herself over to me, she’s mine to cherish and keep.
My arms tighten around her, not to trap, but to remind myself she’s real.
That this is real.
My gaze drifts to the ceiling, but my mind is nowhere to be found in this room. It’s somewhere in the future. To the one I stopped allowing myself to imagine. The one I never thought I’d get a chance to have.
A life that feels full.
A home that feels steady.
A woman who fits into the empty spaces inside me.
I press my lips to her hair, breathing her in, as a realization settles deep in my bones.
Maybe I’ve been searching for the wrong thing all along.
Maybe I wasn’t meant to find someone who could handle me in pieces.
Maybe I was meant to find the person who makes me whole.
As Kia falls asleep against my heart, I know with an aching certainty that I didn’t just find her.
I found my other half.
33
Kia
After everything that happened last night with Laiken, the morning feels deceptively normal.
Elody chatters from the back seat the entire drive to school, her feet swinging as she tells me about a dream she had where her teacher turned into a dragon. I laugh in all the right places and nod at all the right moments, but my mind keeps drifting back to Laiken’s bed and what it felt like to wake up there this morning.