Hold Me Close - Talia Hibbert Page 0,316

him, ‘Rae’s better than you!’ but he’s the only one who can hear it. And he has to smile. He has to look happy about it!” She laughed harder, and this time, Zach joined in. He couldn’t help himself. Because when she put it that way… it still wasn’t right. Not at all. But it was really fucking funny.

After a while, though, she sobered. They were leaning against each other on the sofa, his arm over her shoulders, and she nestled closer.

“Zach,” she whispered. “I’m sorry.”

He held his breath.

“I’m sorry about everything. That weekend—I lied to you in so many ways because I was scared. I didn’t want to trust you, I didn’t think I could, so I pushed you away. I already regretted that. I’d planned to apologise after the awards ceremony, and to tell you the truth about… about my feelings for you.”

Her feelings for him. The words felt so surreal, he almost missed the rest of her speech—almost. But not quite.

“Then,” she said, squeezing her eyes shut. “God, then I just—I fucked everything up. I panicked and I treated you like… like you were someone else. I took my own shit out on you, and I shouldn’t have. But I promise you, I never will again.” She opened her eyes, her gaze drilling into him. “Zach, I swear. I never will again.”

The words held an earth-shaking finality. He nodded slowly, the swell of hope inside him growing even further, the last of his hurt starting to ease away. “I believe you, sunshine.”

But she still wasn’t done. “I need to tell you the truth, now. I know I pretended we were nothing, but honestly, Zach, we’re everything. You’re everything. And I want to be with you, for real. Even if it terrifies me. I mean—that is—” She faltered, her gaze flitting away. “If you want to. I don’t know if you…”

“Hey.” He caught her chin, turning her to face him. Even that slight connection sent pleasure zinging up his spine. No, more than simple pleasure; this was comfort, this was faith, this was a love so deep, it must be stitched into his DNA by now. So fierce she must feel it in him, must see it in his eyes. God knew he wasn’t trying to hide it. Not anymore.

“I think you know I want to,” he said softly. Understatement of the fucking year. “If you can tell me that weekend was real, and that we’ll always be honest moving forward—yeah, I want to.”

“I promise,” she said instantly. “I’ll try, Zach. I will try so hard for you. And…” She raked her teeth over her bottom lip. “Yes. We both know that weekend was real.”

He felt himself smiling, broad and impossible to control. “I’ll try, too, sunshine. No more faking. Or pretending to be faking. Or whatever the fuck we were doing. We’re both terrible liars, anyway.”

Finally, she laughed, her hand coming to rest over his chest—over his heart. “We are, aren’t we?”

“Oh, yeah. And shitty communicators, but we’ll work on that.”

“Me, you mean.”

“No. Us. It’s always us, now. Do you trust me?”

She didn’t reply right away, and Zach told himself to relax. To wait. Then, slowly, her hand glided from his chest, up his throat, to cradle his jaw. He held his breath because this moment felt breakable, impossible, precious. Like everything was coming together. Like they could do this, and they wouldn’t let anything stop them.

She swept a thumb over his cheek. Leaned in close, until he was surrounded by her sweet, bright scent and still-cold skin. Her whisper warmed his lips. “I do. I do trust you.” Then she kissed him. It was the slightest pressure, but it lit him up inside, crackling through him like pure power. Pulling away, she murmured, “I love you, Zach. I don’t care about anything else. I love you, and you’re mine, and if anything gets in the way of that—including me—I’ll deal with it. Quickly.” She added with a scowl.

He would’ve laughed at the vicious determination in her voice, but he was too busy floating up to cloud fucking nine. He ran his thumb over her smiling mouth, his own grin so wide it shouldn’t have fit on his face. The brightest happiness he’d ever felt flew through his blood like a rocket. He dragged her into his lap, ignoring Duke’s suspicious look, and held her so tight his arms ached.

She slid her hands into his hair and yanked him impossibly closer. Then their lips met, and everything