Lead Me Home (Fight for Me #3)(86)

She reached out and cupped the side of my face, tenderness moving through her expression as she studied me. Her thumb traced along the hollow of my eye, and her head tipped in emphasis. “I think you were always more. I just didn’t know what that meant yet.”

I lunged at her, tackling her to the soft earth. She gasped and yelped and then laughed.

That sweet, sweet sound floated on the wind.

Twisted through me.

I pushed up onto my hands and stared down at her. The girl who’d always been my forever.

There she was, all laid out on a bed of blazing stars.

Purple a halo around her head.

I reached out and plucked one, twirled the stem between my thumb and index finger. I brushed the tip down her cheek.

Softly.

Her lips parted on a sigh.

“Did you know the first time I saw you, what I noticed was your eyes? I thought they were the exact same color as these flowers, but like they were floatin’ through the air. Transparent. Like I could see right inside of you. I won’t ever forget that moment, either.”

Her fingertips scratched through my beard. “I don’t think I could ever forget a moment with you, Oliver Preston.”

I kissed at the tips of her fingers, wanting to take in every bit of her.

The movement was almost playful, but my words were somber. “We’ve got a lot of bad memories, Nikki.”

She nodded slow. “Yeah. But we have a lot of good ones, too. That’s what makes up life. The good and the bad. We couldn’t have one without the other. We couldn’t share a life without experiencing both sides of it.”

“That what you want? To share a life with me?” My voice was gruff.

“I always wanted that.”

“Good,” I said, making her squeal when I suddenly reached around her and flipped our positions. She straddled me at the waist, her hands on my chest, all that hair blowing around her, whipped by the wind.

Stirring our spirits.

I tightened my hold. “Don’t think you could get rid of me if you tried.”

She grinned. “And why would I want to go and do something like that? Not when all my matchmaking skills have finally started to work in my favor.”

“Oh, you think you’re responsible for this, too, huh?”

She widened her eyes. “Um, hello, I am the Orgasm Fairy.”

“And who’s the one giving them?” I teased. “Guess I’ll have to stop handing them out like they’re candy and then we can decide who’s really responsible.”

Nikki dipped down, pressing her mouth to mine.

All kinds of possessive.

Just the way I wanted her.

Then I could feel the weight of her grin. “Don’t you dare. You owe me all the orgasms. All. Of. Them. Forever.”

“Greedy girl.”

“Accept it. You created a monster.”

“I thought you said I was the monster. Ogre, to be correct.”

“I told you . . . you’re my beast. Get used to it.”

I laughed.

A laugh that came from my belly, but I was pretty sure it originated in the depths of me. In that dark place that was somehow feeling a fraction lighter.

Like maybe I was finally letting a little of me go.

Didn’t mean I wouldn’t still battle demons.

But what Nikki and I had going?

Maybe it was stronger.

That’s what I wanted to be.

Strong for her.

Right for her.

I brushed my knuckles down the defined curve of her face, and she leaned into my touch. “Everything I have, I want to give to you. I belong to you, Nikki.”

And I wasn’t going to let anything get in the way of that.



An hour later, I weaved back into town, Nikki clinging to me where she sat on the back of my bike.

Wasn’t sure anything had ever felt so right.

I rumbled to a stop in front of the old market that we used to come to all the time as kids, saving up coins so we could go in to buy ice cream or candy or sodas.

The second I stopped, Nikki was climbing off and going through the buckle of the helmet, grinning back at me as she headed for the entrance since she’d said she would just run in really quick to grab something to make for us for dinner tonight.

I hopped off, stalking right behind her.

She’d barely made it onto the sidewalk when I snagged her wrist, spun her around, and pinned her to the wall.

Plastered myself against that sweet body.

I kissed her hard.

Tongue gliding against hers.

My hands wrapped up in that honeyed hair.

She released a tiny moan, and I rubbed myself against her, and she was moaning again before she was laughing and pushing me back. “What are you doing, Ollie? You’re gonna get us arrested for indecency.”

“The only thing indecent around here is how hot you look.”

“Ollie,” she admonished, a flush lighting up those cheeks.

Sunshine.

“What? My girlfriend is smoking hot.”

Her eyes went wide.

So yeah, it was the first time I’d said it in what felt like a hundred years.

I’d said it before.

But I’d never gotten to claim it.

I grabbed her hand and started leading her toward the entrance, my voice lifting a little louder than it probably needed to be.