Come to Me Quietly

Leaning back, I edged her shorts and panties from her hips, slipped them down her legs. My gaze traveled her length, every inch of this girl like a dream. I palmed her knees, pressed them apart. This time it was my turn to lose my breath. Every cell in my body strained. “Fuck,” I wheezed. “You’re so gorgeous, Aly,”

This slow blush started at her stomach, traveled up her chest, kissed her cheeks. “I love you, Jared. With all of me. I am yours.”

My blood pumped hard and joy leaped up in me.

Real joy. Not a hint or suggestion.

This joy was real. Overwhelming. Something tangible that Aly had shown me was still possible to feel.

My eyes locked on hers as I slowly leaned down. I feathered a kiss just above her pelvic bone where our child grew. Another mark my life had made when I’d believed I wasn’t living at all. Wisps of anxiety curled, twisting with my spirit. I didn’t know if I could ever be enough. But God, I was going to try.

I climbed over her, looked down at the girl who changed everything. The one who’d given me another chance at life.

Soft fingers caressed my face, green eyes intense. “Stay,” she whispered.

I wound my arm under her back and brought it up to hold her head. The other trailed from her shoulder and down the length of her arm. I wove my fingers with hers and brought her knuckles to my mouth. I brushed my lips over them. Our flesh so different, the pure and the impure. Yet now I knew we fit.

“I’m not going anywhere.”

Emotion rumbled thick in my chest, pushing and pulsing. I swallowed hard, my chest so fucking tight as I let myself finally feel, feel what I’d been fighting since I walked through Aly’s apartment door six months ago.

“I love you, Aly.” The words shook, but rang with truth. Our truth.

I never believed I’d get to have this. But somehow I’d found myself with it.

It scared the hell out of me, but I was done running.

I wound a single finger through a lock of her inky hair. A bond. It felt like home.

It was time I built another one.