Chapter Twenty-Three #3
“No matter what happened, you’re always going to carry a piece of my heart.
And I’ll always carry yours, I think. Maybe that makes me selfish, maybe I should give it up, but I never could.
I spent years hoping that you were happy.
Because in a way, if you were happy, a sliver of that happiness would reach the core of my soul, and make me happy, too. ”
Her wet eyelashes fluttered, pain creasing her features. “Mitch, please don’t—”
“I’m not finished,” he cut in, his nose brushing the side of hers. “Just for now, I don’t care why you left. All that matters is that I got to hold you again.”
The muscle in his jaw twitched, his irises teal as they reflected the water. His lips looked so soft and inviting …
Jackie wondered if they still tasted the way she remembered.
Maybe if she just checked, just once, her curiosity would be satisfied and the ravenous monster that awoke when her hand touched Mitch in the lobby a few days earlier, which now felt like forever ago, would fall asleep for another ten years.
Maybe this didn’t have to be as complicated as she was making it out to be.
“And I think, deep down, you feel the same. I think you want me as much as I want you,” he murmured, words echoing in the cave.
“I think I might,” she whispered softly against his lips.
“Do you remember when we were in the water together for the first time?”
Jackie groaned, her eyes slamming shut as the memory washed over her. “Could I ever forget any of it?”
Then, before she had a chance to think, to consider what she was doing, the invisible shield between them evaporated.
His lips were soft, gentle at first, but as their tongues connected, sparks erupted, and everything turned more frantic. Mitch’s hands ran up and down her back, and her legs hooked around his waist as she balanced herself in the water.
Her soul found its anchor in his body.
Their breaths mixed, becoming one. Their heartbeats slotted together like interlocking puzzle pieces. Invisible flames licked her skin, burning like the fire: inviting, safe, but at the same time, capable of bringing devastation.
And damn her, she wanted Mitch to devastate her until her last breath.
In that single moment, ten years might’ve not existed. It was like they were back where it all began, two hearts beating together to the melody written only for them. It was like coming home when you thought it had burned down, after the wind scattered all the ashes, leaving nothing.
A chorus of screeches and flapping of velvet wings broke the spell over them, forcing them to come up for breath. They both looked up.
Mitch’s pupils widened in alarm. He pressed her closer to his chest. “Bats!”
Jackie laughed, nuzzling his neck. “I told you there might be some.”
An onyx blanket covered the opening of the cave as the bats took flight.
“I thought you were joking,” he murmured.
She lifted her head off his shoulder. “No. But this …” she inhaled. “This … kiss was …”
“Epic?” Mitch supplied, a small smirk playing on his lips.
The sweet memory of their first kiss stormed Jackie’s mind. Her lungs cinched. She kissed the corner of his lips, wanting to borrow some of that confidence. “Reckless. Impulsive. Shouldn’t have happened.”
“But also epic, yeah?”
She sighed. “Yes. Epic. But Mitch, whatever we do, whatever happens …”
His smirk dissolved into a sad frown. “We don’t have to decide anything right now.”
Her heart rattled away with the hope he’d say he was fine with it. Because she wasn’t sure she could stop herself from kissing him again, now that she’d done it and discovered that kissing Mitch Craigton was still her favorite thing on earth.
She pinned him with her gaze. “I’m not going to be your rebound.”
Her breath hitched, her insides coiling into knots so tight, she wasn’t sure she was ever going to untangle them again. She closed her eyes, shielding them from his drilling gaze.
Why the hell did she say that? There was no way she could compete with the love he had for the woman he wanted to make his wife.
Better question, why would she ever want to?
He had no idea why she left, and even if he did, and somehow still wanted anything to do with her, she couldn’t give him children. Ever.
Memories swarmed in behind her closed eyelids: countless nights they spent in each other’s arms, all the joy and laughter, the hard days when they were there for each other, and the good days when they celebrated each other’s wins.
Mitch swallowed thickly. “You could never be that.”
Jackie’s eyes snapped open. Her pulse tapped haphazardly, deafening her. “Fine. But—” she tried but he interrupted her.
“No overthinking. Not just now.”
Jackie nodded, despite herself. This was good enough, surely? They were both adults. It would be all right.
Mitch kissed her forehead, and reached for her hand, hooking his pinkie finger with hers. “Forehead kisses, pinky promises.”
Four words, and they knocked all the air out of her, kicking her heart into overdrive.
Oh, fuck. It was definitely not going to be all right.