Page 93 of Chalk Outline

My eyes follow the scribbled words on the note.

I see you.

Jason.

Chapter sixteen

Reeve Hardy

The Other Side — Ruelle

The thought that she wants to move on is killing me. And I get it. I told her to move on, but I didn’t think… I huff.

My words mean nothing to her.

Jasonis a stranger.

I desperately grab my confined erection and squeeze it tightly, thinking it would do something to me, yet knowing it won’t. So I choke it, needing this kind of pain.

Fuck.

I hate myself for having to lie to her about so many things. And when I tell the truth, she doesn’t believe me. Her alarm bells go off so quickly that nothing I say satisfies her.

She made a tiny room for Jason inside her barricaded fortress, which she had built for herself. I got to be Reeve again. We talked all night. Stargazed, though I mostly looked at herbecause she’s my favorite constellation. We read books together. Made jokes. Danced under the moonlight like two freaky robots. We even cooked food together, each in his own tower. Now, I feel like she kicked me out on the first strike.

There was always pain on either side. Stubbornness. Some shit we had to hide. Scars. Buried anger for the things we couldn’t control. Trauma.

But for the last three months, we wereus,in a way.

And today, seeing her losing herself like that was unreal. It was heaven. The way she parts her lips ever so slightly and bites down on her bottom lip when she orgasms, “Mmm,” I will never tire of seeing her face twist in ecstasy.

I missed the moans of lovemaking in the early morning. In our little bubble, no one dared to pop.

I take a deep breath and blow my frustrations into the wind.

My hair is a tousled pile atop my head as I ruffle it. A few bright strands fall across my forehead when I gaze at the icy waters below the balcony. The answers are trapped beneath the surface, lodged in the belly of the earth.

Am I being selfish for always wanting her all to myself?

Maybe.

I still want her all to myself, but I’m trying to delay the inevitable.

The bike is parked in our favorite spot on the road, where we watch the ocean. Winona sits in front, wrapped in my arms, telling me about her day as if I hadn’t been there.

We moved in together three years ago on her twenty-second birthday. I am still her bodyguard, and occasionally, I take on missions that Romina assigns to me. Winona still doesn’t know anything, and I’m waiting for the bad news to come because they often arrive when I’m at peace.

I laugh wholeheartedly at her stories, trying to distract myself from what I am about to ask. If she rejects my proposal,I have no backup plan. I’ll probably kidnap her and do whatever I must to change her mind and get her to accept me, just like in the books she brags about.

My pulse thunders in my ears as I slowly pull back and look at her. I don’t have a grand speech or beautiful words to make her melt. All I have is my everlasting love and the heart I gave her all those years ago. I want to look into those eyes for the rest of my life.

“Will you marry me?” I blurt, gulping the anxiety down my throat. “I want to be yours forever.”

Winona beams.

In her eyes, she holds a constellation of stars solely for me. They always complement her light freckles, reigniting the flames in my core all over again.

She is my home, and she knows that. I made sure to tell her every day.