much, much worse than it did.
“The question should be are you alright? Lionel took a direct shot at me, and you jumped in my way to save me. You’re crazy, you know that? You could have taken the brunt of the blast. I thought you were dead… I-” his voice cracked slightly. “I thought he was going to kill you and there was nothing I could do about it.” His hand reached up and tentatively caressed her cheek. “You shouldn’t have done that. Not for me.”
She couldn’t help but lean her head into the warmth of his palm. It was comforting, but more unsettling to her was that it was wanted. She was very aware of his slight roughness of his palm against her face, the way his fingertips rested on her right temple. “Declan, of course I should have done that. I would do that again in heartbeat if it meant saving you.”
“What? Why would you risk your life for me? I couldn’t have lived with myself if something happened to you.”
“Because…” Her breath caught as she finally admitted what she knew all along, “I don’t know… I don’t know what I would have done if you weren’t okay.”
His eyes locked onto hers, piercing through her soul with a burning intensity that reminded her of that night when something in their relationship shifted, the comfortable friendship turning into something that she had not been able to define.
She had ignored those developing feelings, suppressing them deep inside, pretending they did not exist. But now, as her heart pounded in her chest, those feelings came bursting to the surface refusing to be ignored. Not as long as he had his hands on her and was looking at her like this.
His hands trailed down of their own accord to her still nervous ones, entwining his fingers with hers. She looked down for the briefest of moments at their fingers interlaced, letting the butterflies that fluttered anxiously in her stomach gain intensity before she went back to his deep gaze.
He took a step closer. No matter how hard she tried, Caitlyn couldn’t think. In that moment, she could not deny the truth that was laid out in front of her. She felt like everything in her life had led her to this, to this moment right here with him. And then it happened.
Declan closed the small gap remaining between them, his lips crashing to hers. She moaned at the warmth of his touch, the urgency at which he kissed her, returning the kiss with equal fervor. Her heart, her racing heart, felt as if it would explode out of her chest if she did not get closer to him. Caitlyn needed to be closer to him.
Declan must have felt the same because he grabbed her body urging it nearer to him, pulling her hips flush to his, trying to get impossibly closer. She knew at least in this moment, that this was where she was supposed to be, in his arms, as his. She couldn’t deny the truth any longer that they had so expertly hidden from each other, from themselves, for all these months.
Declan wrapped his hands around her waist, his hands moving underneath the hem of her shirt, his fingers barely caressing her stomach. She nearly came undone from that one touch. Her own right hand moved up to wind tightly in his hair, with her left moving one of his hands upwards, begging him to continue his exploration.
They had fallen backwards in their display of passion, allowing a large oak tree to support them. Caitlyn’s back was against the roughness of the bark, but she barely noticed. The way his body molded to hers, it seemed as if his was made just for hers. Caitlyn knew that this must be what complete bliss feels like. It was inexplicable the feelings he was creating inside her.
She wanted nothing than to live in this moment forever. But in a small corner of her mind, a word reverberated through her head. One word. But that one word was enough to make her stop and leave the heaven she was currently in. Garrett.
As quickly as it started, it stopped. She forced herself to pull away, her breath coming out in ragged pants. She reached up and kissed him once more, roughly, desperately. “Declan.”
His eyes glazed over as he touched his forehead to hers. “Caitlyn. Wow.”
Her voice was quiet as she caressed his arms. “Yeah, wow.”
Her mind was racing with the actions of the past