Thank God.
19
Temperance
Kane locks one arm around my back and cradles my chin, tilting my head to take the kiss deeper.
Yes. This is what I need. Him.
Maybe to reassure myself that he’s really alive.
Maybe to burn away the remains of the pain I felt from losing him.
Maybe because I love him, and living without him was the most hopeless feeling I’ve ever faced.
Whatever the reason, I need it desperately.
Madly.
Violently.
Kane’s hand shifts to my ass, and I dig my nails into his shoulder, moaning into the kiss.
“I missed you so fucking much.” He growls against my mouth as I wrap my leg around his hip and press myself against the growing bulge in his jeans.
“I missed you too.”
He pulls back an inch, his blue eyes blazing. “Even when you hated me?”
“Even then, I still would’ve traded everything I have for one more day with you.”
“Thank fuck.” His fingers tunnel into my hair, gripping, and I revel in the bite of pain because it reminds me that we’re bothalive.
I wrap my other leg around him and shimmy up his body until we’re pressed together everywhere that matters.
Crushing my mouth to his, I try to tell him everything without words. That I need him in the most basic way imaginable. That I missed the taste of his kiss. The hard muscles of his body. His capable hands. The careful, yet effortless way he handles me, giving me what I want and need.
He’s the only man who has ever evoked such strong emotions in me. With him, I feel all the extremes. There’s nothing average about what we have.
I should have known from the first night when I couldn’t walk out of that room, even though he was a complete stranger, that this—us—would change my entire life.
Sometimes your body recognizes things before your mind. I don’t know why it took me so long to see it, but now, I’m getting out of my head. I’m following my instincts, and my instincts tell me that regardless of everything that has happened, Kane ismine.
I buck my hips against him, and Kane’s grip tightens. He backs me up to a section of the stainless-steel workbench I’d scrubbed clean the last time I worked here.
As soon as my ass connects with the flat surface, I release my grip on his neck to yank at the hem of his T-shirt. Kane helps me with one hand until the fabric no longer stands in my way.
I’m not letting anything stand in my way anymore when it comes to Kane, not myself or him.
This is happening.Weare happening.
My instincts from before were right—what makes me happy is standing right in front of me.
I marvel at him like I’ve never seen him before. His heavily muscled shoulders, covered in ink that wraps down his arms. The beautiful wings and heart that spread across his chest.
This man, this work of art, loves me.
The realization is still shocking, but I hold it close. I’m never letting the memory of him saying it for the first time fade.