Chapter 255

At some point the kiss thinned and language returned to us.

He traced the line of my jaw with a finger that felt like sunlight through a fracture. “Tell me what you need,” he said, his voice the worn leather of a thing that had been handled often enough to be perfect.

I breathed in, tasting salt and forest and him. “Just to be with you,” I said. “To be chosen by you every day.”

He smiled then, so