“I love them,” he says in a gravelly rasp. I turn back to him, unsure I’ve heard him right. Because I’m not sure anyone could say that. “What?” He clasps my cheek, drops a kiss to my lips that he finishes with a desperate sigh, then returns to my back. “I love them so much,” he says, his own voice full of emotion, like he’s fighting to keep it together. With a shudder, he kisses my back more urgently, all over. “Because they mean you’re alive,” he says, then he raises his face and bands his strong arms around me, pressing his warm chest to my back, clutching me against him like I’m the
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