I nodded, too emotional for words at his acceptance. After all the things I’d kept hidden, even from my very best friends, he’d just wiped away the stigma, the shame, with an easy smile like it was nothing.
But to me? It was everything.
He kissed me then—both a reprimand and a promise—and I felt the tingles from the top of my hair to the very tips of my toes. And everywhere in between. Everywhere.
We stayed like that for a long while, just basking in the comfort of a mate’s touch and kissing as we talked, until the moon had traveled far across the sky and even his banked-coal-level warmth wasn’t enough to keep the cold at bay any longer.
“Ready to head back?” he asked.
“Yes, I just wish it weren’t so far. I’m exhausted.” And I was, to my very bones.
“Luckily for you, I’m not. Hop on,
