Page 104 of Firefly
“I left a note,” I mumble.
“Yeah?” He stalks toward me slowly. “And I crumpled that shit up before I even finished reading it,” he spits, and I swallow thickly.Shit. He’s big mad.
I stand carefully from the couch, trying not to smile. “You’re dramatic.”
“You disappeared again,” he says, his voice cracking slightly on the last word, and suddenly, this doesn’t feel playful anymore. It feels real. Painfully real.
“I didn’t disappear,” I whisper. “I just—”
“What?” He steps closer. “Panicked?”
Yes. Exactly that. Because waking up in Hayden’s arms felt too much like hope and hope is dangerous for us.
“You don’t understand,” I say. “We can’t keep doing this.”
His jaw flexes hard. “Watch me.”
“There’s no forever for us,” I say as my chest tightens and tears sting behind my eyes. “Why waste time pretending otherwise?”
His eyes darken, and the murderous look he gives me tells me that was the wrong thing to say.
Then he cages me against the couch so fast I gasp, losing my footing and fall back down. One hand grips the cushion beside my head while the other hooks around my waist, dragging me flush against him.
“Waste time?” he repeats, growling in my face. The anger in his voice should scare me but instead it makes my entire body tingle, and I bite my bottom lip.
“Hayden…”
“No.” His forehead presses against mine roughly. “You don’t get to decide this is hopeless for the both of us.”
“What about Brayden?” I whisper brokenly. “What about my father? What about—”
But he growls deeply, like actually growls, causing the sound to vibrate straight through me.
“I’ll carve my name into your skin along your ribcage,” he snarls softly against my mouth. “Then lick the blood seeping down your perfect skin before I embed my teeth, marking your flesh. Just so any man after me knows exactly who the fuck you belong to.”Jesus fucking Christ.
My entire body shivers. Because this is insane. Possessive and unhinged. Somehow though. It’s still the most beautiful thing anyone has ever said to me.
Hayden grips my face gently, but firm, completely contradicting every violent word that came before it.
“You are mine,” he whispers. “You will always be my everything, Firefly.”
Tears instantly spill down my cheeks and he leans in, dragging his tongue over the wet streak.
“You are my light when everything gets dark.” His voice softens painfully. “My sentence.” Then presses his lips against mine.
My heart aches listening to him.
“And I’ll serve every violent, breathless year of it with a fucking smile,” he vows as his words destroy me completely.
A sob escapes before I can stop it and he pulls me into his chest, holding me tightly while I cry.
No one has ever loved me like this. Not carefully. Not politely. But fiercely like I'm something worth going to war for.
“I hate you,” I whisper tearfully against him, causing him to laugh into my hair.
“Liar.”
“Okay, fine but…” I say, trailing off. I know I shouldn’t ask this of him but I still need to know. If I’m going to drown in him, I need to fucking know everything.
