***
I stretch onto my back. Every muscle in my body is tender. He went at me like an animal for hours. Bursts of gentle pleasure mixed with the pain of his hands fisting the flesh of my hips and his cock driving into me with more force than I've ever felt before.
I held him while he cried, whispered that I loved him when he pulled me into his arms, and I watched him stare out into the darkness of the city when he got up to get another condom.
He finally fell asleep an hour ago.
I move to get up. I need a glass of water and more air to breathe than is left in this room.
"Ad?" he murmurs as his hand lands on my bare back. "Please don’t go."
I slide closer to him. I stare at his face and his half-open eyes. "I'm not going anywhere. I'll stay all night."
"Stay forever," he whispers.
I smile. "I might have to. I don't know if my legs work anymore."
He huffs out a small laugh and it's music to my ears. "I'll carry you everywhere you need to go."
I rest my forehead against his and cup my hand around the back of his neck. "I know that you would."
"I'd do anything for you because I love you."
The thundering of my heart feels like it's going to split my chest in two. "I love you."
He kisses me lightly. It's a loving press against my mouth. "Thank you for being here. Thank you for knowing I needed you here."
"I wouldn't have been anywhere else." I push back to look at him.
Jesus, I love him so much. I wanted to crawl inside his heart last night and hold it together. I wanted to take his pain away and carry it with mine.
"He hated me."
I bite back a rush of tears as I shake my head. "How can anyone hate you?"
"I wasn't his." He moves to roll onto his back, his muscled forearm shielding his eyes. "I'm adopted."
"I know," I say quietly.
He peeks out from under his arm. "You know?"
I motion toward the door. "Your living room is filled with pictures of you and your family. You're like a giant compared to them."
A laugh bursts out of him. "A giant?"
"You're taller than all of them." I laugh too. "You have black hair and beautiful green eyes. They don't."
"How long have you known?"
I shrug. "A long time, I guess. Since the first time I came here and saw the pictures and when I met Kade, I knew for a fact then. He didn’t say anything but you two are so different."
He lowers his arm. "Why didn't you say anything?"
I move closer to him so I can run my hand over his chest until I feel the steady beating of his heart. "We never talk about May and Jonas being adopted. Why would we talk about you being adopted? A family is a family and we're all family."
He wraps his strong arms around me and kisses my forehead. "This right here is where I belong."
It's where I belong too. It's where I've always been meant to be.