Page 64
The gondola sways, rocking gently back and forth on its hinges. We sit frozen at the apex of the wheel. Completely stranded in the dark.
Cole looks down at the control booth. Ben is nowhere to be seen. The midway below is deserted. He tilts his head, a wicked, knowing smirk carving deep into his cheeks. “Did the ride just break down, Archer?”
“Mechanical failure,” I state, staring straight ahead at the stars. “Tragic.”
“Tragic.” He shifts his weight, sliding closer, his thigh pressing flush against mine. “We could be stuck up here for hours.”
“We might perish from exposure.”
“A terrible way to go.” Cole reaches up, his knuckles brushing my cheek. He tucks a strand of hair behind my ear, his touch feather-light. “Good thing we’re trapped together. We’ll have to rely on body heat to survive.”
He expects banter. He expects the chaotic, teasing rhythm we perfected over the last month. He expects me to fire back a sarcastic remark, deflect the tension, and keep the walls perfectly maintained.
I don’t.
I turn my head, looking directly into his eyes.
The smirk vanishes from his mouth. His hand freezes against my jaw. He reads the shift in my posture instantly—the absolute, unyielding seriousness radiating from my spine.
“Sloane?” The teasing lilt is gone. His voice drops into a low, raw rasp.
“You never push me,” I whisper. The wind steals the words, but the proximity ensures he hears every single syllable. “You give me the knife. You give me the control. You step back the second you think I might panic. You treat me like I’m made of glass.”
Cole’s jaw locks tight. The muscles in his neck strain. “You aren’t glass. You’re steel. But you spent years in a house where your boundaries meant absolutely nothing. I refuse to be another man who takes ground you haven’t offered.”
“I know.” I lift my hand, pressing my palm flat against his chest, right over his violently thudding heart. “I know why you do it. But your absolute refusal to push me means you won’t ask for the things you actually want. It means we sit in the dark, and we don’t say the words.”
He stops breathing, and his eyes widen. “Sloane…”
“I love you.”
The words leave my mouth, and the sky doesn’t fall. The steel cables holding the gondola don’t snap. The universe doesn’t immediately strike me down for daring to claim a piece of happiness.
Cole stares at me. His chest heaves under my palm. He looks like a man who just took a bullet to the ribs.
“Say it again.” The demand tears out of his throat, desperate and broken.
“I love you, Cole.” A watery laugh escapes my lips, the massive, suffocating weight lifting off my shoulders. “I am completely, entirely in love with you. And I was too much of a coward to say it on the ground, so I had Jules trap us eighty feet in the air so I couldn’t run away after I did.”
A harsh, jagged groan rips from his lungs.
He doesn’t hesitate. He doesn’t pull his punches. He grabs my shoulders, hauls me across the bench seat, and crushes his mouth against mine.
The kiss is an absolute collision. It is violent, chaotic, and desperately claiming. I open for him instantly, my hands tangling in his dark hair, dragging him closer. His tongue sweeps into my mouth, tasting of salt and adrenaline. He kisses me like a starving man, pouring every ounce of the restraint he banked over the last month directly into the contact.
“I love you,” he gasps against my lips, his hands gripping my face, his thumbs tracking the line of my cheekbones. “Fuck, Sloane. I love you so much it makes me feel insane. I’ve loved you since the second you stepped into that sawdust ring and looked at my knives like they were nothing.”
I smile against his mouth, a hot tear slipping free and tracking down my cheek.
He kisses the tear away, his lips moving down my jaw, burying his face in the crook of my neck. He wraps his arms tightly around my waist, pulling my body flush against his, anchoring us together in the swaying metal cage.
“You trapped me,” he murmurs against my skin, the wicked, devastating humor returning to his voice. “You colluded with my brother’s wife to hold me hostage.”
“I eliminated the exits,” I correct, running my hands over the broad expanse of his back.
Cole lifts his head, his dark eyes burning with absolute, unfiltered devotion.
“Good,” he whispers, pressing his forehead against mine. “Because I’m never looking for a way out.”
