Page 161 of Celestial Combat

She sighed, finally looking at me, waiting for me to continue.

I swallowed, my jaw ticking with tension as everything I wanted to tell her – from how much she meant to me, to how I wasneverletting this end – spiralled in my head at a thousand miles per hour.

A calm breath finally settled in my chest.

“I love you.”

She blinked, stunned. “What?”

“I’m in love with you.” My breath was heavy, chest tight, the words feeling too big to fit in the air between us.

“You are?”

“Madly.”

“We’ve only been dating for a month.”

“You’ve been mine ever since you walked into Python six months ago and told me your name was Meisa,” I said, barely able to get the words out without exhaling all the oxygen in my lungs.

She opened her mouth, but nothing came. Her eyes glistened – either from surprise or something deeper, I couldn’t tell.

And the silence that followed hit me like a punch to the ribs.

Fuck. Did I go too deep too soon?

I took a step closer, determined to keep moving forward and convince her we should keep seeing each other.

I leaned down, close enough to feel the heat of her skin, my lips brushing the space near her cheek.

But when I leaned in to kiss her, she pulled back.

A groan slipped from my throat as I pressed my forehead against hers.

“Kali, please…” I murmured. It was all I could say. I wasn’t good at begging, but she was the one person who could bring me to my knees without lifting a finger.

Her hands slid up to my neck, fingers soft, deliberate. She made me look at her. Her thumb brushed along my jaw – slow, comforting – and then she whispered it.

“I’m in love with you too.”

Time fractured.

I didn’t wait – couldn’t. I crushed my mouth to hers, one hand wrapping into her hair, the other grabbing her waist and pulling her into me like I needed to hold every inch of her all at once.

And she kissed me back with everything.

No hesitation.

No fear.

Only truth.

Only us.

We kissed like the world had vanished. Like we had nothing left to lose, and everything to keep.

And in that moment, I knew.

She was mine.

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