“This isn’t a dream, right?” I whisper.
He strides in my direction and reaches me in a fraction of a second. By the time I stare up at him, smell him, I’m already done for.
He lifts me up in his arms and I gasp as his lips crush to mine, his tongue invading me and feasting on me.
I don’t even have time to focus or to think. Xander kisses me with the desperation of a man on the verge of breakdown.
Like me, he hasn’t been breathing, and now, we’re sucking in each other’s air for the first time in forever.
I wrap my arms around his neck and my legs around his trim waist as I kiss him with everything in me.
He’s here.
He came back for me.
“Does this answer your question?” he murmurs near my mouth.
“Not really.” I brush my lips against his. “I need a bit more to make sure.”
He chuckles, the sound easy and heartfelt as he claims my mouth again. This kiss is slower, more passionate. He’s tasting me as much as I’m tasting him.
There isn’t that constant aftertaste of alcohol. Now, he’s only like mint and ocean and…Xan.
My Xan.
He’s breathing me in as much as I’m breathing him.
He’s feeling me as much as I’m feeling him.
He came back.
Oh, God. He came back.
“Wait.” I shake my head, needing to get out of my haze. “You still have a few more days, no?”
His dimples make an appearance as he grins. “I came out early for exemplary behaviour.”
“Really?”
“Really. I had to come back for you, Green.”
“I missed you so much.” My voice breaks with my confession.
He groans, “You’re killing me, Green.”
“You have no idea how much I missed you.”
“And you have no idea how much I love you.”
I pause, blinking. “Say that again. I didn’t catch it the first time.”
“I love you, Green. I’m in love with you. It probably began that day you hugged me and told me you’d never let me go. It’s only heightened since then, and I might have hated you for it over the years, but I never once stopped loving you.”
If there were a moment I could freeze in time, this would be it. I want to grab it, snap a shot of it, box it, and look at it in the future, preferably every day.
My heart nearly bursts as I let my fingers roam to his nape and I whisper, “I probably started loving you before. It became a torture over the years, but it was so worth it.”
He leans over and bites my lower lip into his mouth. “So worth it, huh?”