Chapter Twenty Three

The air between them still crackles with the energy of the kiss, their breaths shallow and quick, both unwilling to look away. It’s a strange kind of silence that falls after the storm, one filled with the weight of what has just happened, what’s been laid bare between them. Kade can feel Briar’s pulse under his fingertips, the faint tremble in her body where their skin still touches. There’s a softness to her now, a vulnerability he hadn’t seen before. The walls that once kept them apart are crumbling, and it terrifies him to his core—because as much as he wants her, as much as he needs her, he knows that once they move forward, there’s no coming back from it.

Briar’s hand reaches up, tentative at first, brushing against the side of Kade’s face, her fingers grazing over the stubble that’s grown on his jaw. The tenderness of her touch is almost more than he can handle; it breaks through his hardened exterior, a raw reminder of how much he’s missed this, missed her. Her thumb traces the curve of his cheekbone, and for a moment, they just stay like that—silent, breathless, but saying more than words ever could.

“I... I thought you were gone,” she whispers, her voice thick with emotion. Her gaze never leaves his, but her hands fall away, folding into the fabric of his shirt. “I thought I’d lost you for good.”

Kade’s heart clenches at her words. They hang between them, heavy with the history of their separation, the years they spent apart, tangled in regrets and mistakes neither of them could undo. “I know,” he murmurs, his voice rough. “I thought the same thing. Every day. I thought I’d never find my way back to you.”

The vulnerability in her eyes makes him want to pull her closer, to shelter her from all the pain, all the loss. But he knows better than that. This moment—this raw, unfiltered moment—is their truth. He can’t protect her from it. He can’t hide behind the walls they once built. And if he’s honest, he doesn’t want to anymore.

“I don’t know if I can trust you,” she admits, her voice barely a whisper, the fear clear in her eyes. “I don’t know if I can trust myself. What if... what if we’re both making a mistake?”

Kade takes a step back, his hands falling to his sides as he processes her words. The doubt in her voice cuts deeper than anything he’s felt in a long time. The question lingers in the air between them, haunting and unresolved. But he refuses to let her go, refuses to let this slip away. He’s fought too hard to get here, and he’ll fight harder still to prove to her that they can do this, that they can fix what was broken.

“You don’t have to trust me right now,” Kade says, his voice soft but steady. “But I need you to trust us—what we have. We can figure this out. We’ve always figured it out, Briar. We’ll find a way back to each other, even if we have to rebuild everything from the ground up.”

Her eyes search his, a flicker of uncertainty still dancing behind them, but it’s met with the sincerity in his gaze, the quiet conviction that speaks louder than words ever could. For the first time, she allows herself to believe him. She lets the walls fall, just for a moment, and the smallest of smiles plays on her lips.

“I don’t know if I’m ready for this,” she admits, a breathy laugh escaping her as she looks away, as if embarrassed by her own vulnerability. “But maybe... maybe I’ll never be ready. Maybe we don’t have to be ready. Maybe we just have to want it.”

Kade steps closer again, closing the space between them. His hand reaches for her, fingers lightly brushing her arm as he leans in, forehead resting gently against hers. “We want it. More than anything.”

And in that moment, as they stand together, the weight of everything they’ve been through seems to lift just enough for them to see the possibility of what’s ahead. There’s no grand gesture, no promise of an easy road ahead, but in each other’s eyes, they both see what’s been missing for so long: hope.

Kade pulls her in for a softer kiss this time, one that doesn’t carry the same desperation but instead speaks of something more enduring. It’s a kiss that says, we’re here, we’re together, and we’re going to find our way forward. It’s not the end of their journey—it’s the beginning.

And as the kiss deepens, as they lose themselves in the quiet passion of the moment, they both know, without a doubt, that there’s no going back. Not now. Not ever again.