Page 108 of Where We Belong

Your eyes are Cinderella Blue.

“I already told you a bit about what she’d said regarding the pebble.”

I nodded, stroking his chest.

His gaze was shy as he tucked a strand of hair behind my ear. “When she left…there was a letter with a dried daisy pressed inside.”

I stroked the petals of the flower to encourage him to continue. With a slow blink and small inhale, he finally did.

“She told me in that letter that one day I’d be tempted to fall in love. She knew her warning about the pebble would stop me from letting that person in some day. So she told me to think of a daisy. Strong, resilient.”

His hand rested on my throat, slowly trailing down over the name printed on my cut.

“Strong enough to push through gravel, grow between rocks. Strong enough to withstand this sediment around my heart. I gave you that pebble that day on the bus platform and said it was a reminder.”

I held my breath as tears burned the backs of my eyes. He let out a tiny laugh, shaking his head.

“It wasn’t a reminder, Daisy.”

Why did it feel like he’d just made an incision in my chest and inserted a piece of himself? My throat felt thick, my voice feeble as I tried to find the words.

“What was it then?” I managed to whisper.

His head was pinned to mine, similarly to that day on the platform. His hand touched the ends of my hair as he confessed.

“It was surrender.”

All this time…he’d been calling me Daisy since the second time we met.

“I took that dried flower into a tattoo shop when I was sixteen. Simon wouldn’t let me get one any sooner, no matter who I asked in the club. But at sixteen one of the members took pity on me. I handed him the flower, it was all dried, falling apart regardless of how hard I had tried to keep it together. The man, Sly, that was his name…he took one look at the pathetic flower still hanging on by a thread and he inked it over my heart. So I’d always remember my mothers parting words, and last wish for me.”

My mouth moved even though I didn’t process what I was trying to say.

“She wanted you to find your daisy.”

Killian’s hand came over mine, where it was pinned to his chest.

“She wanted me to find my match. She wanted me to...” His voice pitched, almost like he couldn’t bring himself to say it. That was okay. I would say it for the both of us.

“I love you,” I whispered, my voice shaking, eyes watering.

He smiled, lowering his mouth to mine.

“Ditto, Daisy.”

My arms came up, and we were lost to our lust as his mouth moved as violently as a storm against mine. He didn’t kiss me; he claimed me.

“Get on your hands and knees, Daisy. Let me fuck you while I stare at my name on your back.”

My spine arched with the silent need to show him what I had branded into my skin, but I wasn’t ready. Even after that confession, I wasn’t.

Moving on the bed, I looked behind me as he got into position, and then his hand was stroking the letters of the cut, as he thrust inside me.

“Gonna ruin you,” he vowed, and my fists clenched the bedding.

His groan reverberated against the walls as he rocked into me. My hair was wrapped around his fist as he slid out and returned, slamming forward. He was so deep, and the way he pulled at my scalp, the burn was so sensational that I moaned, greedy for him to continue.

“You need more?”