That a story would arise.
Make sense.
Give me an answer.
Gasping in surprise, I nearly fell out of my chair with the light tappin’ that came at my window.
It was a sound that was so familiar but I hadn’t heard in so long that for a moment I was wondering if I were imagining it.
But I knew. I knew because it resonated like a drum in the depths of me.
A call.
A plea.
Heart stampeding, I slapped shut the notebook and lifted my head.
A dangerous, darkened silhouette came into view out in the tree.
Massive and distinct.
Beautiful and destructive.
So compelling that I could do nothing but push off the chair and lean over the desk, my hands shaking like crazy as I fumbled to release the latch and slide up the window the way I’d done a thousand times before.
In all of a second, Maxon had pushed through, and I was stumbling back, struck by the force of his blistering presence as he climbed over the desk and onto his feet.
Body towering. Expression fierce.
Overwhelming.
For a moment, we just stood there staring at each other, pants heaving from our lungs as our spirits caught up to the point of the meeting.
An intersection.
His eyes pinched in despair.
“You think I don’t know what a family is? That I don’t understand what love is?” he demanded in a desperate sort of disbelief, voice rough and raw as he took a step forward, every word scraping with the magnitude of what he was saying.
My spirit clenched, and I sucked in a shattered breath as I stared up at the devastation written in his expression.
There I was, right back at that fork in the road.
Only now, it felt like there was only one direction I could go.
Reaching out, he took me by both sides of the face, those big hands stretched across my cheeks and dipping under my jaw.
Forcin’ me to look at him.
As if I could look anywhere else.
A shudder ripped down my spine, and need rushed like wildfire through my body.
“Loving you was the only truth I knew,” he grated. “The only thing I ever did right. The only thing that has ever been real.”
I could feel the thunder of his heart, this rioting pound, pound, pound that ricocheted against the frantic beat of mine.
Oh God. I didn’t know if I could handle this. What he was sayin’. What he was implyin’.
“I don’t want to go on living this life without you in it.” There he went, tearing me up more, his tone deepening in emphasis. “Don’t want to spend one more day without you by my side. One more night without you lying next to me. Let’s love again, Little Bird. Love me, the way I love you. And I promise, I will never let you go.”
I was nothing but a shaking mess at his admission. All those broken pieces he’d left me with toppling to the ground.
“Maxon,” I whimpered.
He tugged me forward. “Do you love me? Do you still feel the same, or am I too late?”
My attention raced across his face, looking for any trace of insincerity. For any reason not to believe this man. To keep on fighting what clearly was a losing battle.
Because this man had won me over long, long ago.
My soul shivered in awakening.
Reservations sheared away.
The cold eclipsed by the heat of the flames that came alive between us.
There were no boundaries left. No barrier so high. No fear so great.
None that could compete with what was taking me over.
“Tell me,” he demanded low, his nose brushing mine.
My hands curled around his wrists, hanging on for dear life, and I let the deepest confessions of my heart pour out.
“I have loved you since I was a little girl and you came runnin’ to rescue me. I have loved you since I first saw that tender smile and had the honor of meetin’ that fierce, brave heart. I loved you when I didn’t really know what it meant, and I loved you even more when I grew into the fullness of it.”
My voice slowed in significance. “Never for a day did I stop. I love you, Maxon Chambers. I’m so in love with you.”
His kiss was swift and all-consuming.
Dizziness swept through my mind, knees going weak. It didn’t matter at all, considering the man was sweeping me into the security of those sure arms and pulling me to the warmth of his rock-hard body.
His tongue stroked mine, and my arms locked desperately around his neck.
“Every day, I loved you,” I muttered into his mouth, and he grunted back, splaying a big hand over the small of my back and sliding down to grip me by the bottom.
The other wrapped up in my hair in the same moment my legs were wrapping around his waist.
Basic instinct.
Belonging there all along.
Never breaking that kiss, he carried me across the room, keeping hold of me as he crawled with me on top of my bed and laid me down in the middle of it.