Chapter 52 — Almost Happily Ever After

“Dorian.”

I whisper his name like it’s a promise. Or maybe it’s a prayer. Who can tell anymore?

He drapes my hair over my shoulder, leaning forward to press a kiss against my neck. His lips are soft against my skin, barely touching me. The expression “butterflies in my stomach” always seemed strange to me, but I finally got it. It perfectly describes this sensation I’ve never experienced before. Like hundreds of colorful wings, light as air, flutter inside me. It’s something in between a shock of electricity and the softness of a feather, and it makes my breath quicken.

I let my head fall back and rest on his shoulder as his lips slide over me, trailing soft kisses over my shoulders. Raindrops trickle down my back. I lean into him, feeling every place where our bodies touch. They’re not enough.

I turn around so that we can face each other, our lips inches apart. He glistens in the rain, and those icy blue eyes of his fill me with a hunger I’ve never known before.

“Dorian, I have to tell you something,” I say, trying to calm my racing heart long enough for me to find my words as he waits for me to go on. How can he be so patient? I can barely think straight, but I have to tell him.

“I heard you that night in the car. I pretended to be asleep, but I wasn’t. I needed to hear what you had to say… to hear that you wanted me.”

He tucks a slick strand of hair behind my ear, sliding his thumb down across my jaw.

“Why?”

Is he really going to make me say it?

He tucks a slick strand of hair behind my ear, sliding his thumb down across my jaw, and his gaze rests on my lips.

“Because I want you too,” I say finally, and then I can’t hold back anymore. I don’t want to.

I stand on my tiptoes and wrap my hands around his neck, pulling him towards me. When we kiss, it feels like waking up. There’s an invisible string tugging at my chest, pulling me towards him, and when our lips collide, the pressure of it eases. More than satisfaction, it’s a relief, and then he kisses me back soft and slow, and it’s perfect.

As I step back and lean against the tree, he matches my movement, and we let the world fade around us until nothing else exists. I think back on that first time at the lake and then on the dance outside the school. It was raining then, just like it is today. It’s proper damn romantic. I know it sounds like I’m exaggerating, but I swear that in the moment, the sound of rain around us seems like the orchestral swelling of violins.

I let out a shaky sigh as he pulls away, and my eyes flutter open.

“I know,” he says, and I curiously quirk my head to the side.

“What do you mean?”

“I know you weren’t really asleep that day,” he says with a smirk. “The way you pretended to wake up after was incredibly fake. You’re an extraordinary person, Valerie, but you’re a terrible actress.”

My jaw drops in shock, and he closes it with a quick kiss. I rest my hand on his chest incredulously as he pulls away again.

“Why didn’t you say anything?” I ask.

“Because it didn’t change anything. I figured we’d talk about it when you were ready.”

I shake my head with a huff, unable to decide if I’m offended or flattered. I’m leaning towards the latter as he smiles at me.

“Okay. How about from now on: no secrets,” I say, sliding my finger up his neck and into his hair to pull him closer to me.

“Actually, I have one more,” he says, forehead resting against mine as droplets trickle from his brow.

“Really? And that is?” I ask.

“I love you.”

I have no words.

That’s all they are, really. Just words. Because the truth is, I knew love long before he said it. I felt it long before either one of us thought to give it a name. It was in every glance, in every sacrifice, in every fight, in every smile, every joke, every hug, every tear. Ever since I met him, love is more than a feeling, more than a word. It’s a person. It’s him. But I can’t think of a better way to express that, so I just say:

“I love you too.”

We kiss while the tree bark tears tiny holes into my dress. We hold each other until it stops raining. We stay there wrapped up in each other until I’m unable to imagine my life without him.

After all I’ve lost, I finally found what I’d been searching for my whole life. Love. Freedom. Family. Home.

I want to stay like this forever, and I feel so safe and warm in his arms that I could fall asleep then and there. But my life is not a movie, and we’re both standing soaked and filthy. We have to go home and do the ordinary things that make life real, like shower, eat, change clothes, and sleep in a bed.

I’m okay with that.

Because life is better than a movie. I get to actually live it. After so many years on the sidelines, I don’t feel helpless. I’m making my own choices. And I’m loved so much more than I ever imagined I could be.

“We should head back,” I tell him, and he groans playfully.

“Do we have to? If you want to get cleaned up, we could always jump in the lake.”

“Tempting… But the world is bigger than the two of us, remember?” Even if sometimes it doesn’t feel that way. “And if we don’t show up for dinner tonight, Emily will send out a search and rescue team.”

We laugh and start to dust ourselves off as much as we can, but we’re still a mess, and I love it.

“Fair enough. Although there’s one more thing I want to ask you before we head back,” Dorian says.

“I’m all ears.”

“Will you be my Luna?”