It started with rain.
Soft. Rhythmic.
Tapping against the bedroom window like a reminder:
Stay in. Stay close.
Jesse had just stepped out of the shower, towel slung low, hair dripping onto his collarbones.
I was sitting on the bed, trying to read but I was also watching him like I'd never seen him before.
Maybe I hadn't.
Not like this.
Calm.
Centered.
Unarmored.
---
He walked over.
Took my book.
Stood between my legs.
And lifted my chin.
"I need you."
It wasn't lust in his voice.
It wasn't hunger.
It was gravity.
The kind that pulls you deeper when you thought you were already drowning.
---
He kissed me.
Not rough.
Not fast.
Just open-mouthed and full of everything he couldn't say last night.
I let him take his time.
Peeling my clothes off like memories.
Touching me like I was made of every second he thought he'd lost.
---
When he pushed inside me, it was slow.
Like he wanted to feel every inch of coming home.
I gasped—
More at the way he looked at me than the stretch.
His eyes were glassy.
Not from pain.
From finally letting himself feel it.
---
He moved slowly.
Deliberate. Deep.
One hand on my hip.
The other cradling my face like I might vanish if he let go.
"Kade…"
His voice cracked.
"I love you."
I blinked up at him.
He'd said it before.
In passing.
In letters.
In silence.
Even during love making.
But never like this.
It felt different,
My tummy did that flip.
Not with his body inside mine.
Not with his walls down.
Not while we both trembled for the same reason.
"I love you," he said again, broken and whole in the same breath.
I pulled him closer.
"I know. I love you too."
---
We came together.
Hard.
Tangled.
Shaking.
It wasn't just sex.
It was surrender.
---
After, we didn't talk much.
Just lay there, breathing in sync, the rain still falling.
And Jesse whispered,
"Every time I say it, I believe it more."
I curled into his chest.
"Then say it again tomorrow."
---
He kissed the top of my head.
"I'll say it forever."