"Aiden..." I shake my head, eyes fixed anywhere but the gorgeous man next to me.
His hand grips my chin tightly, just enough to make me avert my eyes to his.
"You know you want this as much as I fucking do. I want you to be mine. I want to be the...
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My arms clutch his neck gently as he sits back against the hospital bed. The feeling of his warm, tattooed skin grazing and encircling my waist pools my eyes with tears. His arms form into fists around me, securing me in his protectively possessive hold. I've missed this. So, so much.
"I was so scared you wouldn't wake up, A." I express through tremors and tighten my grip as if to prevent him from evaporating. It sounds silly, but the sleepless nights I spent clenching his shirt in my fist while he was gone, extended my agitation into a paranoia, the very one swirling my mind as I hold him against me for the first time in a month.
"You're never getting rid of me that easily, baby." He rumbles, hoarse words swiftly dismissing mine. "It'll take so much fucking more to keep me away from you. And even then, I wouldn't promise you'd find peace from me."
For the first time in weeks, my lips pull into a genuine smile, "I missed hearing you say that word."
Aiden shifts his head back, resting against the orthopedic pillow for support. Emerald eyes study my face with adoration. He always looks at me like that and like always, it makes my stomach flutter and my cheeks heat. "I missed you."
"I missed you more." I whisper back, an aching pit of guilt forming in the middle of my chest. Hesitantly, I graze my thumb down his cheekbone, the sharp feature much more prominent than before. Does he remember what I told him before he blacked out? The query's been ceaseless, one I've been asking silently everyday, always promising myself to love him the way he deserves when he comes back to me, a tactic to make myself feel better. Might sound selfish, but Rose told me to never lose hope and somehow, I had to find strength in order to believe.
After all, nothing was final, and now, I get to lay next to my man and blurt out all I've been keeping from him in one, very loosening breath.
"And I love you. So much, Aiden. And I'm sorry for not coming to terms with my feelings and hiding them from you when I finally did-I was just scared it'd be our high before we took the fall-not that I ever plan on breaking up with you, 'cause you're stuck with me forever, dude, and sorry for thinking that we'd break up-I was just really insecure of myself and I'm really sorry if I ever made you feel insecure in either of us and I'm sorry for not telling you that I love you, and-"
"Again," nonchalant demand and smiling eyes cut in.
"What?" My hand lays frozen atop his cheek, a wildfire burns to it's finishing-line;my face and blazes me with the realization of that I've been word-vomiting all over him.
"Say it again." He says, urgency dripping off his every word, face matching the one of a child on Christmas morning.
"I love you." I repeat, fighting the strong urge to pout. Joy expands my heart leisurely, afraid that this moment somehow might be one I'm dreaming. The blinding sunlight persuades that it's not; A's really hearing me say the words we've both secretly anticipated under delightful circumstances and I couldn't be happier.
