Page 61 of Lily, Unwritten

He pressed a finger to my lips. “I’m sure I said this before but we could go anywhere in the world together. I’m not going to let something like distance or a job stop me from being with the love of my life. I spent too long sitting on the side lines, putting other people first, I’m not doing that anymore. I want you.”

I gathered in a long breath, taking the moment to compose my nerves, my thoughts. To think about everything that had happened, every mistake, every sadness. But also every happy moment, every sensation of love, hope, joy.

“Can you do something for me?”

Luke nodded, and I leaned forwards, my hand resting on his knee.

“Seeing as we’re being a little bit retro… Let me kiss you, just once. One kiss, and you’ll feel what I feel, I know you will.”

Luke’s leg shook under my hand, and I stroked, soothing and softening. His lips brushed mine, just for a moment, giving me the briefest taste of everything I’d missed.

“What do you feel?”

I ran my fingers across the back of his neck, rubbing up and into his hair as I clambered onto his knee as gracefully as possible.

“That I never want to let you go…”

“Then don’t. Be with me.”

A tear slipped down, splashing onto my lip, before Luke kissed it away. Soft, sweet, delicate.

“Was The Metro you?” I asked.

Luke nodded his head softly.

“I just needed you to know. I couldn’t approach you that morning, but I was sure you felt me.”

“I did. It was weird because I hadn’t listened to Coldplay since we parted, but it was on shuffle that morning.”

“Something in the universe wants us to be together.”

I bit my lip as I looked at him, scared but so sure this was inevitable, once again. As it had been before, as it always would be. Did it even matter what anyone thought? All the past hurt was there anyway, nothing would change it, but did it need to affect forever? My eyes danced across his features, remembering the familiar and beautiful shape of him.

“It’s me, Luke. I want us to be together.”

His lips touched mine, and the rest of the world faded to nothing. His hands ran up into my hair and held my face close as I pulled myself towards him. Our mouths moved together. My legs wrapped around him instinctively as I wriggled forward on his knee, pressing myself to him.

He took hold of my face with both of his hands and kissed the tears away that fell from my eyes. “You don’t ever have to cry for us again, Lily. This can be it. This can finally be it. I love you.” Then his tongue pressed against mine; his hands slid inside my jumper and up my back, pulling me closer still. “I dreamt about this every single night I was without you,” he spoke against my lips as my hands pulled his shirt from his jeans, desperate to feel the soft skin of his back under my fingers once again.

“I love you. I’m so sorry about everything…”

“Stop.” Luke gripped my face between his hands. “Nothing to say sorry for. What happened, happened. It got us to where we are right now, and personally, I love where I am right now.”

I peppered kisses along his jawline, along that super smooth neck, breathing him wholly into me as I did so. “Our new beginning?”

“Absolutely…” His head tilted back, a pleasured sigh falling from his mouth, which I was only too delighted to capture with my own.

“Luke…” My mouth meandered to his ear, leaving kiss after kiss in its wake. “Is it really presumptuous of me if I ask if you’d like to come upstairs?” My sex drive might have been asleep for months, but it had just had the biggest caffeine shot of its life.

“Nope,” he grinned as he lifted me up and my legs gripped him tight.

“This is why I couldn’t look at you earlier.”

“Yeah, we’d get arrested if we carried on like this on the beach.”

I laughed at his words, the happiest laugh I could recall in a long time. I’d missed him so much it felt as if my heart scorched through my chest in those moments, like a sun about to collapse in on itself; the burn was so bright.

Our mouths locked back together as Luke stood. We moved towards the stairs where he placed me down, his touch gentle yet so needing. I took his hand and led him up the steep, narrow steps towards my room. “Mind your head, this place wasn’t designed for tall people.”