Chapter 142: Hundred and Forty Two

Something inside me cracked open. For the first time in years, I wasn’t fighting. Not him. Not myself. Just… breathing.

I reached out before I could second-guess it, fingers brushing over his wrist. “I don’t know how to do this,” I whispered, my voice wrecked. “I don’t know how to be brave enough.”

His hand turned under mine, warm and steady, his fingers sliding to lace through mine. “You don’t have to be brave for me,” he murmured. “Just… be mine. That’s all I need.”

“I never stopped loving you,” I confessed, barely audible. “Not for a single day. You know that, right? So when I behave like this,” I took a deep  breath, “Believe me.”

His breath hitched, small, but I felt it. His forehead lowered until it rested gently against mine, his breath soft and warm on my face. “Willow…”

That single word, my name, carried more tenderness than anything else in the world.

For a suspended moment, we just stayed like that, foreheads touching, breaths mingling, my tears drying on my cheeks.

Then he kissed me.

His hand cupped my jaw, thumb brushing my damp skin, and I leaned into it like it was the only safe place left in the world. And he was. In his vicinity, I felt like nothing wrong could happen. Not as long as I had him.

When we parted, I was trembling. Not from fear, but from relief.

“I don’t want to hurt Noah,” I whispered.

Declan’s eyes shone, steady and unyielding. “Then let’s not. Let’s do this right. For him. For us.”

But then his voice broke through, low and careful, as though he didn’t want to startle me.

Declan didn’t move for a while, he just held me there, steady as stone, like he could take the weight off my shoulders by sheer will alone.

“Come with me this weekend.”

I pulled back slightly, searching his eyes. “Come with you where?”

His lips curved, almost hesitant. “The lake house. You remember it.”

Of course I remembered it. How could I forget that?

My throat closed. “Declan…”

He squeezed my hand, lacing our fingers tighter. “It’s not about running away. Not this time. It’s about… space. A place where we can breathe. Where you don’t have to be ‘Mom’ or ‘colleague’ or my student or Jacob’s ex fiance. Just you. Just us.”

My chest ached with wanting. With fear. With the sheer possibility of it.

“I can’t disappear on Noah,” I whispered.

“You won’t,” he said firmly. “We’ll bring him with us another time. Right now, I just,” He broke off, his eyes fierce in their honesty. “I just want one weekend to remind you what it feels like when it’s only us. When the world isn’t clawing at you.”

The sincerity in his tone undid me. My defenses collapsed, and I started to imagine. Being with him in the water. Sleeping with him in that bed. I nodded before I could talk myself out of it. “Okay.”

Relief flickered in his gaze, softening them. He leaned in again, kissing me with a slowness that felt almost reverent. My knees weakened, and I clutched at his shirt just to stay upright.

When the kiss deepened, something shifted. He had this effect on me I could never deny.

“Declan…” My voice came out ragged as I broke away for breath.

His hand slid down to the small of my back, anchoring me. “Tell me to stop and I will.”

I shook my head, tears stinging my eyes again. “Please stop.”

His groan was low, buried against my temple as his mouth found me again. My jaw, the line of my throat, everywhere I’d ached to feel him.

We stumbled backward until the edge of my desk pressed against me. He lifted me onto it with ease, his body fitting between my knees like he belonged there, like he’d always belonged there.

It wasn’t frantic, though my pulse thundered. My hands found his hair, tugging him closer, desperate for more even as the tenderness of it left me trembling.

Years had passed, but in that moment, it felt like no time at all. Like our bodies remembered what our hearts had never forgotten.

“God, Willow,” he murmured against my skin. “I’ll never have enough of you.” He lightly bit my collarbone, “You are mine. Always. My dove.”

I cupped his face, forcing him to meet my eyes. “I thought I lost you forever.”

“You didn’t,” he whispered fiercely. “You never could.”

The tears I’d been holding back spilled freely, but he kissed them away, his lips tender against my cheeks, my eyelids, my mouth.

And when he finally pushed me back onto the desk, following me down with a kiss that burned and soothed all at once, I didn’t think about Jacob or the past or the consequences or even Noah.

For the first time in years, I let myself be only a woman in love.

Later, as we lay tangled together in the quiet, his arms wrapped tight around me, I rested my head on his chest and listened to the steady thrum of his heartbeat.

The guilt was there, lingering at the edges, but softer now, there was also hope.

“Declan?” I murmured, my voice small in the dimness.

“Hmm?” His fingers were stroking lazy circles against my shoulder, grounding me.

I tilted my head to look at him. “The lake house… are you sure?”

His eyes softened, almost boyish in their vulnerability. “I’ve never been more sure of anything.”

Something warm unfurled in my chest. I pressed a kiss to his chest, just above his heart, and whispered, “Okay. Let’s go. And, let’s take Noah, too.”

He exhaled shakily, pulling me closer, as though the promise itself had restored something he’d been missing all these years.