Page 138 of Make Me Mean It

The word comes out quietly, Theo stilling beneath me.

Anxiety curls beneath my ribs, creeping back in now that I’m not distracted by his mouth or his hands or the heat of him beneath me.

Stay.

Here.

With Theo.

And I don’t know what the that means, what any of it means really, but I know what his face looked like when I pulled away from him.

“Okay,” I say again, softer this time.

Maybe for him.

Maybe for me.

I lean down and kiss him slowly, letting my mouth linger against his before I force myself to say the only thing I can promise without lying to him.

“I’ll try.”

Theo’s eyes snap open, finding mine wide and searching, flicking between them like he’s waiting for the but.

A smile breaks out across his face, bright and so completely Theo that my heart jumps.

“Fuck.”

I grab him and drag him back into me before I can sit there staring at him like an idiot, my mouth finding his again, swallowing whatever sound he makes as Theo’s arms close around me.

And I let myself sink into it.

Because I’ll try is already sitting too heavily in my chest.

And if I stop kissing him now, I might have to think about exactly what I just promised.