Something Wilder

by Christina Lauren

“Quiet doesn’t necessarily mean tame.”

He’d loved Lily so deeply that it changed his biology.

Finally, he was able to tell her: “Missing you was physically debilitating.”

“I’m in if you are.” Lily’s hazel eyes took on a golden glimmer in the rising sun. “Yeah?” “Yeah.” I might follow you anywhere, he thought.

Even a decade ago, she’d never needed Leo for a thing, but he wanted her to want him anyway.

He looked over at Lily’s profile, and a cord pulled tight from his throat to his gut. He hadn’t felt this present in so long. Air hit his skin differently, landed in his lungs with more of a punch. He was aware of his pulse pounding and the handfuls of times he’d laughed out loud in the past few days. Here was color, and sound, and heat. She was here. He wasn’t sure how he would manage to leave her at the end of the trip.

He was falling in love again. Had never fallen out of it.

“What do you think’s happening online?” Walter said, frowning down at his feet. “Same thing as every day,” Leo said. “Somebody’s mad. Somebody’s lecturing. Cat memes.” “Someone’s posting a shirtless bathroom selfie on Instagram,”

“I had to let you go once,” he told her. “You think I’m letting that happen again?”

“Your job is to sit there and watch me.”

“I love you,” he said in her dream. “I don’t think I ever stopped.”

“I think the problem is that I’m not the kind of person to fall in and out of love.” And now her pulse was pounding. The implication landed heavily. But she asked anyway: “What do you mean?” “I mean, I fell in love once and stayed there.”

Just because thoughts are loud or constant doesn’t mean they’re right.”

Leo gave Lily that look, the one that told her he was done sharing for the night.

Leo told her happiness was her best accessory.