Sarah’s chest rose and fell in uneven breaths, her pulse hamring in her ears. Reagan’s words clawed their way into her, unraveling the last thread she was holding on to.
Then her thoughts went to Nick.
Even now, despite everything, his na still burned in her heart. Yet the way Reagan’s grip tightened around her hand, the fire in his voice, the brutal honesty in his eyes, shook her in a way Nick never had.
Her throat closed up. "Reagan... stop. Please... don’t do this to ." Her voice cracked, a plea for escape that sounded hollow even to her own ears.
She wanted to pull away, to cling to Nick’s ghost, to the image of the man she had once sworn was her everything. But her body betrayed her, rooted to the ground, trembling under the weight of Reagan’s gaze.
Tears welled in her eyes. ’Why now? Why him? Why does it feel like the ground I’ve been standing on is crumbling beneath ?’ Reagan’s words and her desperation were making her heart waver.
Reagan’s jaw clenched, as though holding back sothing dangerous. Then, with a sharp exhale, he released it all. "Do you want the truth, Sarah? Fine. I am in love with you."
Her breath caught.
"I’ve been in love with you for longer than I want to admit," he continued, voice low, raw, every word scraping his throat like broken glass. "But I never told you because my life isn’t sothing I can offer you. It’s dark. Much darker than Nick’s ever was." His eyes flashed, haunted, secrets buried behind them.
"If I drag you into that, I’d only stain you. Corrupt you. I don’t want that for you. I have a dark past and present, damn, maybe even future. There are things that I don’t ever want you to see," he added.
Sarah shook her head in disbelief, her tears spilling now, streaking her cheeks. "Then why—why tell all this?"
"Because," Reagan’s voice broke into a growl, his control snapping, "if dragging you into my darkness is the only way to pull you out of his... then so be it." He moved closer, his grip searing against her skin.
"I’ll do it. I’ll risk it. I’ll fight until Nick is nothing but a ghost you can’t even rember. If it ans saving you... If it ans making you forget him, Sarah—I’ll do anything. But I would not allow you to stay miserable any longer."
The room seed to close in on them. Sarah stood trembling, torn between the love she thought she knew and the dangerous salvation standing right in front of her.
Sarah leaned back, her eyes darting, searching for sothing solid in the haze of emotions crashing down on her. Her lips trembled, but no words ca out. Confusion twisted inside her chest, a storm she couldn’t control. Nick’s face, Nick’s touch, Nick’s betrayal—every mory clashed violently with Reagan’s raw confession.
"I don’t—" she stamred, shaking her head, her tears blurring his figure. "I don’t know what to feel. I don’t know what’s real anymore."
Reagan didn’t let her retreat. He followed, steady and unyielding, his presence suffocating yet magnetic. "Then let make it real for you," he said, voice sharp but laced with desperation.
"Sarah, you’ve been living in a fantasy with Nick. You built him up into soone he never was. And now, he’s broken you. But ..." He pressed a hand against his chest, his gaze burning into hers. "I’ve seen every part of you. The sides you’ve hidden from everyone."
Her lips parted, a silent gasp, as he closed the distance further.
"I know the shadows you keep locked away," Reagan continued, cutting into her defenses. "I know the dark side you don’t want anyone to see. Your past. The things you like but are too ashad to admit. Your bad habits. Your dirty secrets." His voice dropped lower, intimate, chilling. "And I accept all of it."
Sarah’s breath caught in her throat, her body trembling as though every word peeled away her armor. She tried to speak, but her throat betrayed her, no sound coming out.
Reagan leaned closer. "The man you need in your life isn’t the one who blinded you with empty promises. It’s . The one who knows you, truly knows you, and still wants you. The one who won’t turn away from your darkness but stand inside it with you."
Her tears slid down, her mind screaming at her to push him away, to deny him, but her body froze, caught in the pull of his conviction.
Her chest rose and fell in shallow bursts, as though every breath betrayed the war inside her. Part of her scread Nick’s na, begged her to hold on to the scraps of the love she once believed in.
But much louder was the ache that had hollowed her out for years. The ache for soone to see her. To want her. To protect her not just as a fleeting convenience, but as a woman worth fighting for.
Reagan’s eyes locked on hers, unrelenting. His hand hovered near her cheek, not touching, just waiting, giving her the chance to pull away. But Sarah didn’t move. She couldn’t. Her body leaned toward him before her mind could catch up.
And in that reckless heartbeat, she closed the space between them.
His lips crashed onto hers, and the kiss was dangerous, intoxicating, like stepping off a cliff and finding out you could fly. Sarah gasped against his mouth, her hands clutching at his shirt as if to anchor herself, but instead she only pulled him closer.
Reagan groaned, his arms wrapping around her with a fervor that was both desperate and protective. It wasn’t the careless hunger Nick had shown her countless tis. This was different. This was raw, consuming, and terrifying in how much it made her feel.
Tears slid down her cheeks even as she kissed him back, her soul cracking open under the weight of it. Because deep down, buried beneath all her denials, this was what she craved.
A man who saw her.
A man who didn’t flinch at her flaws.
A man who wanted her, not just her body.
Reagan broke the kiss only long enough to whisper against her lips, his forehead pressed to hers, his breath ragged. "You don’t have to be strong alone anymore. I’ll stand by you, Sarah. In the dark. In the ss. In everything."
Her heart clenched, and with trembling resolve, she kissed him again, softer this ti, filled with sothing terrifyingly tender. For the first ti in years, she wasn’t invisible. She wasn’t just a shadow in soone else’s love story.
She was a woman, wanted and held.
And in Reagan’s arms, Sarah finally let herself believe she could be more than her heartbreak.
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