Full Tilt (Full Tilt, #1)

by Emma Scott

I was crying. I was breathing and pulsing and living. And Jonah was dying.

We lay curled up in each other, and I laid my head against his chest. “Does this hurt?” I whispered. The rumble of his voice in my ear was drowsy. “No. I’m all right.” “Does anything hurt right now?” “No, Kacey.” Jonah stroked my hair, held me tighter. “Right now, nothing hurts.”

He smiled. “No, just a friendly reminder.” “Of what?” “That you can find beauty everywhere, even in the things that scare you the most.”

“Because, Kace, the days will count down until there’s only one left,” he said through gritted teeth. “The one where I have to say goodbye to you.”

“I should’ve stayed. I never should’ve left at all. And I promise you, Jonah, I’ll never leave you again. Never again.” “I’m going to leave you,” I said,

have moments. Thousands upon thousands of them.

She took me inside her, and as my body was wracked with pleasure, I felt the most bittersweet of emotions, soaring and plummeting at the same time: joy, that I had this woman in my life, and a profound ache that I had met her too late.

I would love you forever, Kacey, if I only had the chance.

“Lovers don’t finally meet somewhere. They are in each other all along,”

We had to go full tilt, just like the card players did. I would hit instead of stay. Always.

“A man who lives fully is prepared to die at any time.” —Mark Twain

I didn’t want macho stoicism or restraint. I wanted their true selves and nothing more. I wanted their moments.

He was a universe. My love for him was just as boundless.

rolled and slid, driving toward a bittersweet crescendo of pleasure. Tears for love. For loss. For the weeks he had, and the years he didn’t. For the joy and laughter, the heartache and grief. For this lonely man and the lost woman he’d rescued. For us, and the rapidly approaching time in which there would be only me.

“It’s the best thing you’ve ever made,” Tania murmured. “Because loving her is the best thing I’ve ever done.”

I kissed Jonah Fletcher with all of my heart, and with every piece of my soul that would love him forever.

them with her name. I loved her more than I had ever loved anyone and was loved in return. The knowledge was safe in me, locked in my heart, and when I stopped fighting it and let my eyes fall closed…

“No regrets, Jonah,” I told him, my hand skimming over the piece of the universe. “And I will love you forever.”