Page 72 of Beyond Question

All my walls. All that running.

And for what?

That monster found me anyway.

My shoulders shake on another silent cry, my breath stuttering as I try to fill my lungs.

Travis drags his hand up my arm, then brushes the hair from my face. “Hey, hey,” he whispers, “come here.”

Come here.Two simple words. Words that can be said to children, to dogs, but from his lips, in that soft, gentle voice, they mean so much.

There’s a world of emotion in those words.

Come here, let me hold you.

Come here, let me comfort you.

Come here… please stop running.

This man wants to care for me.

So I turn toward him. With tears streaming from my eyes, I stretch out along the length of his body and twine my legs with his.

When Travis cups my face and pushes up onto his elbow to look down into my eyes, the pale lavender light of early dawn streaming in between the drawn blackout curtains is enough to show me the question in his eyes.

Are you done running?

And so I nod. “I don’t want to run anymore.”

Chapter Twenty-Three

Travis

Her words knock the breath from my lungs, but when I close my mouth over hers, she breathes life back into me. I kiss her tenderly at first, but each brush of my lips against hers, each gentle, tentative stroke of our tongues feelsmoresomehow.

Deeper.

Meaningful.

She gives herself to me in this kiss and I could fucking scream at the way it feels.

I do love this woman. There’s no doubt in my mind.

It’s too damn early in our relationship, I know, but it is what it is. I’m not going to question my feelings for Paige, I’m just going to lean into them, lean into this kiss.

Kissing her feels like so many things at once. A promise, aclaim, but most of all, kissing Paige feels like coming home.

Like I’ve waited forty-two years to find this woman and make my home in her arms.

It’s fucking intense, but I’m in.

I meant that when I said it earlier.I’m all in.

I groan into her mouth when she pushes toward me to deepen the kiss, stroking her tongue along the length of mine.

And then her hands are on me, and my body trembles from the touch.

I’ve kissed her before, and it was incredible, but this… having her hands running all over my shoulders, my back, into my hair—