Page 117 of Untamed

It’s apromise.

“Sei mia.”

You’re mine.

Those two words melt over my skin, sink into my bloodstream, take root somewhere deep inside my chest.

Everything stops. The world, the room, my breath...my fear. They all still, and for a moment, nothing but the two of us exists.

Because he means it, not as a question, not as a threat, but as something absolute. Like a truth he’s carried in silence, and now finally dares to give voice to.

I don’t hesitate; all traces of hesitation are gone when I lean in, my lips barely grazing his as I whisper back, quietly, confidently, while shaking with everything I’m feeling.

“I’m yours.”

I hear him utter something incoherent under his breath, and then, everything that has been coiled tight inside him—insidebothof us, snaps loose.

When you’ve spent most of your life drowning in darkness, you forget how blinding even a flicker of light can be.

And that’s whatsheis.

Not just a flicker, but a flare.

Something bright and warm in a world that’s always felt cold and cruel. Something that burns when I get too close, but I keep coming closer anyway.

And right now… I don’t know what the hell is happening inside me.

Because I can’t remember the last time I felt anything like this. The way my stomach twists when she looks at me like I’mnotsomething broken. The way her voice softens when she says my name. The way she touches me like I’m made of more than scars and blood.

Butterflies.Fuck.

I didn’t even think I was capable of that feeling.

But right now? It feels like a thousand of them are taking flight inside me, and every one of them is screaming her name.

The moment she whispered those two words, I’m yours,something inside me came undone.

Not cracked, not chipped...un-fucking-done.

Like a lock I didn’t know was still holding had suddenly been broken wide open. And I know,fuck, I know, there’s no putting it back together. Not the way it was before.

I don’t know how she did it. How I let her,whenI let her. But somehow, Jordyn’s managed to reach parts of me I buried so deep I stopped believing they existed. The pieces I bolted shut, welded in place, forgotten beneath the wreckage of who I’ve become. Whohemade me.

And now? They’re hers.

Every fractured, rusted, ugly part of me is unravelling in her hands.

We’re so close I can almost taste the warmth of her breath drifting across my lips like a breath of smoke. Her mouth hovers inches away, soft and inviting, lips slightly parted, as though they live only to be pressed against mine. Her hands, delicate yetinsistent, are curled at the nape of my neck, fingertips sinking into my hair as if she fears that one wrong move will shatter this fragile world we’ve built in a single heartbeat.

And God, I want her.

I want to taste her. To take her. To sink into her until the rest of the world disappears.

But more than that? I want her to remember this for therightreasons.

I want to give her somethingbetterthan this, better than a half-broken man with blood on his skin and pain stitched into his bones.

So, I breathe her in like she’s the only thing roping me to the ground. I brush my thumb along her jaw, slow and aching, and I press my forehead to hers.