Page 135 of Unspoken Hearts
Feeling the heat from his mouth on mine, my throat works. Music and crowds surround me, but the noise is drowned out as if I’m underwater. All I can hear is my own pulse, beating heavily through my body, and his heavier exhales.
Somehow I'm now the nervous one, like this man knows exactly what to do to make me feel wanted. Undone.
My body heats at his proximity, burning like a wildfire at how good he smells. “Maybe I have to say the right words then,” he murmurs smoothly into my ear, and I feel every vertebrae shiver.
My teeth sink into my bottom lip, and his eyes track the movement. “They’d have to be some of the best words,” I let out, completely enthralled by him.
“The best,” he rasps, making my stomach flip like a pancake.
Staring up into his eyes that gleam with affection, his hands hold my sides, softly yet also firmly. Faces inches apart, I want him to kiss me already, because I’m starting to need him more and more. He’s the drug I was always afraid of becoming addicted to, that I pushed away for so many years, but now that I have him, and I know what it feels like, I’m not letting him go.
I lift up onto my toes, and he murmurs out in his honeyed voice, “I love you, Mae.”
I feel my mouth drop open. I blink up at him, a little shocked from his words. Breath catching in my lungs, I feel my brain simultaneously going into overdrive and shutting off, like it overpowered itself and switched off. Nothing comes out of me.
Lips stilled, eyes wide and chest tingling, the words repeat through my mind on a reel.
I love you, Mae.
My fingers grow numb as moisture forms in the brim of my lashes, tickling my eyes, starting to glass over my vision.
“Macie?” Reid mutters, his dark eyebrows pulling together. He swallows nervously.
Does he not understand?
I shake my head, trying to clear my head of the memories enough to respond, but Reid pulls back, clearly hurt by my reaction.
“No,” I whisper-yell, realising how bad my silence must’ve seemed. I grab onto his face, holding him steady as my hands tremble against his skin.
“No?” he echoes, sounding as wounded as he looks.
My pulse is pounding violently through my ears, making bile rise in my throat as I try to squeeze the right words out.
How am I screwing this up so badly?
“I don’t mean no. I just—” A soft sob escapes my lips.
Reid’s eyes dance between mine, glassed over in tears as I hold him steady, silently begging for him not to move. I have to get this out before he hates me. I don’t want to hurt him.
My head shakes again. “I’ve never heard anyone say that before and mean it.”
The deep creases in his face dissipate, realising what I’m saying.
My parents never loved me, and I don’t think my aunt did either. They never said it to me, even if it was a lie, along with everyone else. Sure, Laynie and Axel say it here and there, but it’s not the same when it’s someone you have longed to hear those words from, only to have your heart shattered instead.
I blink at him, droplets falling down my face as I lean into him, pressing my mouth against his. Reid’s arms wrap around me, holding me in place as mine remain on his rough jaw.
This is real. It's tangible. His love for me is as raw and pure as honeycomb, and I’m magnetised to it.
Steady tears drip off my chin as my fingers slide down to his neck. His pulse hammers away, matching my own as he lifts me up, my legs straddling him behind the barrier as the round up continues around us.
I moan against his lips—his perfect soft lips that I never want to be without. He groans against me, sending a shiver down my spine.
I pull away, remaining on his hips.
Resting my forehead on his, I press my eyes shut, lines of water drying to my face as I breathe him in. “I’ve never said this before.” All I can hear is his heavy exhales and the blood rushing through my ears when I whisper, “I love you, Reid. I’ve loved you for so long.”
He makes a pleading sound before I’m kissing him again. My feet wriggle as my heart finally blooms with the lightness I’ve waited to feel for years. As if it were being weighed down and constantly broken, and Reid’s words have ended it after years of tearing and aching.
