by H G Lynch
“Reid,” she said quietly.
He looked back over his shoulder with a smile. “Hmm?” he murmured.
“I was just thinking…do you regret meeting me? I mean, do you miss being able to just do whatever you want?” she asked, her voice soft and uncertain. Really, she just wanted to know if he felt like he had to change because of her. If he might start to resent her for it. She hoped he wouldn’t.
Twisting around in his saddle, Reid frowned at her for a moment, a line appearing between his fine brows, and then he turned back to face where he was going. Ember wasn’t sure if he was thinking about how to answer or if he just wasn’t going to answer.
She was about to tell him to forget about it, when they rode into a wide, beautiful meadow. The trees fell away so steadily she hadn’t even noticed them thinning until they were in the centre of an open area of lush, emerald-green grass and sunset coloured leaves. The little meadow was set atop a small hill, giving them a view over the tops of the surrounding trees.
“Wow,” Ember breathed to herself, watching her breath cloud like delicate mist in the chilly air.
“Ember.” Reid’s voice brought her eyes back to him, and she saw he’d circled round to face her. Looking up, she met Reid’s blue eyes. His expression was unreadable, and she bit her lip nervously, wondering what he was going to say.
He sighed, the corners of his mouth tilting down. “Ember, I don’t regret meeting you. I don’t miss doing whatever I felt like all the time. I don’t miss the parties or the nameless girls. You know why?” he asked quietly.
Ember shook her head. “No,” she whispered.
Reid’s mouth ticked up in a soft smile. “I don’t miss any of it, because none of it meant anything. But you, how I feel about you…that matters. That means something – it means everything. It’s like everything I did before, up until I met you, was just a way of passing time, searching for something, for a buzz, until I found the real high.” He laughed. “Loving you is probably the most insane, reckless, maddening kind of high – better than alcohol or sex. It’s…it’s…” He yanked a hand through his hair, running out of words. He laughed again, a short noise stuck somewhere between embarrassment and elation.
Ember felt her heart beating behind her ribs like a dove fluttering to escape its cage. She looked down at her hands on the saddle as she blushed helplessly. But she could only look away from him for a moment before his fingers touched her chin, tilting her face up to meet his gaze, now just inches from hers as he leaned toward her. “Ember, I love you, and I could never, never regret that. You need to believe that,” he whispered.
Staring into those hauntingly beautiful blue eyes, Ember’s reply came without thought. “I do believe it,” she murmured.
Reid smiled, and closed the inches between them. He kissed her so slowly and tenderly, she thought she’d break apart, crumbling into tiny pieces. Her hands trembled on her reins. His fingertips traced her face, while his other hand wound round her hair and tugged out the bobble so her hair fell in wavy, golden curtains to frame her face. The soft snorting of the horses and the whisper of the wind through the jewel-coloured leaves of the trees seemed quiet compared to the sound of her own heart racing frantically inside her chest.
Reid pulled away, cupping her face lightly in his hand like she might break if he touched her too firmly, and his thumb brushed her now-sensitive lips. She smiled at him. “Reid?”
“Yes?”
“I love you,” she said quietly.
He broke into a dazzling grin that lit his entire face. “I know, Firefly. I know.”
Acknowledgements
Firstly, I want to thank my amazing lit agent for all the incredible hard work she does and thank you to Nicola, for this awesome cover design.
Thank you to my parents for putting up with my fits of madness, and thank you to Shannon and Sophie because your friendship and enthusiasm for my books means the world to me. Thank you for kidnapping me to keep me from stressing my brains out. I’ll never forget Clingfilm and Dragonball Z. Yes, Shannon, “It’s over nine thousand!” LOVE YOU ALL SO MUCH!