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Delilah’s throat was dry. “About yesterday?—”

“I’m sorry,” he said quickly. “I didn’t mean to push you. The kiss… I wasn’t trying to corner you into anything.”

She blinked, startled by the honesty.

“I meant it,” he added. “But I didn’t expect it.”

Delilah stepped closer, arms wrapped around her middle. “That’s the problem, Rollo. Ididexpect it. I’ve expected it for years. And I kept hoping you’d catch up.”

He looked like she’d struck him.

She softened. Just a little.

“I’m not angry,” she said, voice quieter. “But I am scared. Hazel came by last night.”

That got his attention. “What did she say?”

Delilah’s eyes dropped to the stone path beneath their feet. “That the forest is shifting. That something old is coming. And… that you’d either mark me, or the woods would take us both.”

Silence. Long. Dense.

Then, in a voice rougher than she’d ever heard from him, Rollo asked, “And what doyouwant?”

Her eyes snapped back to his.

“What?”

“I know what Hazel said. I know what fate wants. Butyou, Delilah—what doyouwant?”

She swallowed. Her hands trembled, so she balled them into fists.

“I want… not to be afraid,” she said. “I want to know that if I give you all of me, you won’t disappear again. And that the reason you want me is because of me, not a bond or fate type of thing.”

Rollo crossed the space between them in two strides.

“It’s not. And I won’t,” he said, voice low and fierce. “Not again.”

Delilah’s heart pounded. “You can’t promise that.”

“I can.” He stepped closer. “Because I’ve already made the choice. Every day since you came back, I’ve chosen you. I just haven’t said it out loud. Hell, the moment you left, I knew I was wrong.”

He raised a hand, cupped her cheek.

Delilah leaned into it without a second thought.

“You’ve always had me,” he said, thumb brushing beneath her eye. “Even when I didn’t deserve it.”

She closed the space between them, grabbing the front of his shirt and pulling him in like gravity itself demanded it.

Their mouths met.

This kiss wasn’t like the one at the bridge.

This one burned.

It demanded.

She melted against him, chest to chest, as his arms wrapped around her. One hand tangled in her hair, pulling gently, the other held her firm against him like he could keep the world from falling apart if he just anchored them together.