10. Caius #3
Afterwards, we stay pressed together, breathing hard, foreheads touching. I'm still inside her, we’re not ready to let go of this moment.
"That happened," Hallie says eventually, her voice breaking the comfortable silence that's settled over us. There's a laugh bubbling up beneath her words, slightly breathless and disbelieving, like she's trying to convince herself this is real.
"Yeah." My own voice is still wrecked from everything we just confessed to each other.
"In the library," she continues, and I can hear the smile growing wider in her tone.
"Your workplace," I point out, pulling back just enough to see her face in the dim emergency lighting. I lean in and kiss the tip of her nose, that perfect little nose I've wanted to kiss for years. "I'm a bad influence on you."
"The worst," she agrees, but she's grinning now, that full radiant smile that makes her whole face light up, the one she saves for moments when she's genuinely happy instead of just being polite.
Her fingers trace idle patterns on my chest through my shirt.
"My mother would absolutely die if she knew. "
The library lights choose that moment to flicker off, the automatic timer kicking in right on schedule. Darkness swallows us whole, broken only by the glow of the emergency exit signs at either end of the room.
In the dark, surrounded by the familiar scent of old books and now her lavender perfume, I feel her take a shaky breath, her chest rising and falling against mine. The sound of it echoes in us, vulnerable and raw.
"I don't want to fake it either," she whispers, and her voice trembles just slightly, like she's standing on something terrifying and exhilarating all at once. Her fingers curl tighter into my shirt, anchoring herself. "Any of it. Not one single second. I want this to be real."
Relief floods through me so strong and sudden I have to close my eyes against the force of it, have to press my forehead to hers to ground myself. My hands shake where they cup her face. "Yeah?"
"Yeah." Her voice is steady now, sure, filled with a conviction that makes my heart stutter.
I feel her smile against my skin, can hear it in the way her next words come out clear and certain, like she's finally saying something she's been holding back for years.
"I'm done pretending I don't love you, Caius. I'm so done with it."
I set her down gently, both of us fumbling in the dark to find our clothes. When we're mostly dressed, I pull her back into my arms.
"We have to tell Ryan," I say quietly, the reality of what we're doing settling over us both like a weighted blanket. The words hang in the air between us, heavy with everything they imply, all the complications we've just signed up for.
She stiffens in my arms immediately, her whole body going rigid against mine.
I feel her fingers tighten reflexively on my shirt before she pulls back just enough to look up at me, her eyes wide and worried even in the dim light filtering through the library windows.
"He's going to kill you," she says, and there's no humor in her voice, just stark certainty.
"Probably." I can't help the small, wry smile that tugs at my mouth even as I acknowledge the truth of it.
Ryan's going to lose his mind when he finds out.
But I press a kiss to the top of her head anyway, breathing in the familiar scent of her shampoo that I've been half in love with for years. "Worth it, though. You're worth it."
She's quiet for a long moment, her fingers fidgeting with the hem of my shirt, worrying at a loose thread.
When she speaks again, her voice is smaller, more uncertain.
"What if he makes you choose? Him or me?
" The question trembles in the area between us, and I can hear all her old insecurities wrapped up in those eight words, the fear that she's not worth the trouble, that she'll never be someone's first choice.
"Then I choose you." The answer comes without hesitation. "Every time, Hal. I choose you."
She tilts her face up, and even in the darkness I can see her smile. "We're really doing this?"
"Unless you've changed your mind in the last three minutes."
"Not a chance." She kisses me again, soft and sweet and full of promise. "Take me home?"
"Your place or mine?"
"Yours. I want to see this converted barn you're so embarrassed about."
I laugh, lacing my fingers through hers as we navigate the dark library toward the exit. "It's nothing special."
"I'll be the judge of that."
We step out into the cool spring night, and I lock the door behind us. Hallie leans against me as we walk toward my truck, and everything feels different. Lighter. Like a weight I've been carrying for years finally lifted.
"So," she says as I open the passenger door for her. "How exactly are we going to tell my brother that you've been in love with me since high school?"
"Very carefully?" I suggest.
She laughs, bright and free. "This is going to be a disaster."
"Absolutely." I kiss her one more time before closing her door. "Can't wait."