Merry Me

by C.R. Jane

And even though I didn’t know where it would lead…I knew I didn’t want to walk away from it. Not this time.

He took the stick from my hand with gentle fingers, the graze of his skin electric, then speared a marshmallow onto it with practiced ease. “You know,” he said, his voice low and warm, “you used to always do this thing—burn a marshmallow beyond recognition on purpose, take one dramatic bite, and then hand it to me like you were doing me the favor.”

A lump rose in my throat. “She didn’t tell me.” “She told me you didn’t want to talk,” he said thickly. “But she asked if I would walk with her. Just for a bit.”

“She asked me if I loved you,” Easton went on, his voice low. “And I told her I’d never loved anyone more.” He paused, eyes on the fire, like the flames

“But if I had,” he whispered, “maybe you would’ve come with me. Maybe you would’ve stayed. But maybe you would’ve always wondered if you gave up a piece of yourself just to hold on to me.”

“I left,” he whispered. “But I didn’t stop loving you. Not for one day. And not because I wanted to let go. Because someone wise reminded me that real love isn’t a leash. It’s a lantern.” My throat thickened.

“You needed space to find your own light,” he said, looking at me—not flinching, not looking away. “And I had to believe you’d find your way home.” My heart splintered under the weight of it…because I remembered that version of myself. The girl who stood on the edge of everything, terrified that love would make her small. That it would claim too much. That she’d disappear into someone else’s story and forget how to write her own.

“You always have been mine,” he said, voice a rasp of emotion and steel. “And I don’t care if a thousand women throw themselves at me. Strip down. Light themselves on fire. I wouldn’t look twice. Because I already found the only girl who’s ever mattered.”

“Because I’ve seen what life is like without you,” he said, pressing his lips gently to my forehead, like I was fragile porcelain he didn’t dare drop. “And I’ll never live it again.”

“And no one else could ever touch what we had. What we still have. And if I have to tell you that every single day until you believe it, I will. I’ll break down every wall, every doubt, every scar you’ve tried to hide behind.”

There wasn’t one. There was just Easton. Just his truth. Just the two of us, suspended in the kind of moment you don’t walk back from. The last breath before the fall. And this time…I wasn’t sure I wanted to catch myself.

But I’m telling you right now—no one else matters. You’re the only one I’ve ever wanted. You believe me?”

“It just…it reminds me of all the reasons I walked away to begin with. She’s…she’s gorgeous, and I’m⁠—”

“You’re about to fuck the soul out of me, and you’ve got Santa shredding on your junk.”

grinned. “You’ll be calling me Saint Nick by the end of this when I gift you with my cock. So it seems fitting.” “Fucking hell,” she groaned, tossing her head back against the wall, still laughing. “You’re completely unhinged.”

absolute. “You’re the love of my fucking life.”

to catch my breath. “Nat,” I murmured, my voice breaking with the weight of my feelings for her. “You feel so fucking good. So tight. I can’t live without this. I can’t live without you.”