The kiss wasn’t tentative.
It was desperate. Starving. All restraint collapsed into one breathless moment.
Michelle's lips were warm, familiar, devastating. Jeremiah’s hands came up to frame her face, thumbs brushing her cheeks as though he was afraid she might disappear. Michelle kissed him back with everything she’d buried, grief, longing, regret, hope.
The previous kiss they shared had been a breaking point, years of restraint snapping under pressure. This one was a choice.
Jeremiah’s hands came to Michelle’s waist slowly at first, as if giving her time to pull away, to change her mind. She didn’t. Instead, she leaned into him, anchoring herself there like she had once, long ago.
The world fell away.
The cabin seemed to shrink until there was only warmth and breath and the familia
