Page 128 of Every Broken Promise
Astrid didn’t take it. Instead, she rushed into me. Her arms wrapped around my waist. She fit perfectly against me. Her head rested just under my chin. Like this, I felt like I could protect her from the world.
She pulled back slightly, and our gazes collided.
Astrid leaned up to kiss me, and it was at that moment that my mouth decided to just blurt out what had been bothering me these past few days.
“I love you, Astrid…” Her eyes went wide, and she stopped breathing. I cursed myself for saying it straight up like that, but now it was out there, I couldn’t take it back. “I loved you when we were kids. I loved you every single moment that you were gone… Fuck… When I saw you again, I knew I would always love you. Beautiful, please don’t kiss me if you don’t want forever with me because if you walk away again, it’s going to fucking kill me.”
While my chest was rising and falling after my confession, Astrid’s had yet to move.
“You love me?” she wheezed out after a few seconds.
“In kinder, you reached for my hand, but instead, you got my heart, Astrid. I was so fucking stupid in not telling you sooner.”
Her lower lip quivered.
“Ty,” she whispered my name, and this time, I held my breath. “Please kiss me.”
My heart beat wildly as I took a second to process the words she had just told me.
Fuck.
She was mine.
I didn’t hesitate and cupped her face. She was fragile under me, but to know she trusted me—that she wanted me—that was everything.
Astrid’s lips tasted like forgiveness, and I was ready to be absolved from the sins of our past.
“Ty…” she said against my lips.
All I could do was hold on to her.
“I love you too.”
I closed my eyes, and finally, after half a life of wanting this girl and telling myself I couldn’t have her, I basked in the knowledge that she was finally mine.
This time, when we kissed, it was more urgent. The promise of forever hanging over our heads feeling more attainable than ever. My hands wandered down to her thighs and lifted her off the ground. Astrid wrapped her legs around my waist. I kicked the door closed and walked us over to my room.
“This is better than any fantasy,” I told her between kisses.
Before she got a chance to reply, I threw her on the bed. Seeing her in my space, in my bed, was everything I knew I had been missing. Everything we could have had right from the start, and now that I had this chance—now that it was real—there was no way in hell I would fuck it up.
Astrid leaned on her elbows and said my name breathlessly. “Ty.”
Fuck, that sounded good.
I kissed her again, pouring every single emotion I had into that kiss. The longing, the desperation I had felt from not having her. The kiss was raw, filled with all the broken promises we were too young and dumb to keep.
Astrid’s desperation matched my own. The kiss quickly turned frantic, both of us desperate to feel the other without any barriers.
“Dreamed about this a thousand times,” I told her as I removed her blouse and threw it on the floor, mine quickly following. “You’d be sleeping next to me, and all I could think is all the ways I could fuck you.”
Astrid was breathless as I kissed every bit of exposed skin I could get my mouth on. She moaned when I undid the top button of her jeans and put my hand on her swollen little clit.
“I had to stop myself from reaching out and doing exactly this.”
I pulled back to look at her, and those half-mast hazel eyes undid me.
“Would you have been just as wet for me then?” I taunted her as I slowly sank a finger inside of her. Her lips parted in a silent moan. “I think you would have.”
