CHAPTER 210

**ZION**

She turned toward me.

Slow. Unreadable.

Wearing my shirt.

And I swear—for a second—I forgot how to breathe.

She looked like sin and salvation all at once. Her hair was a mess, soft strands falling into her eyes. 

Her gaze locked on mine, unreadable, calm, but I felt anything but calm. 

My shirt hung off her frame like it belonged there, the hem barely brushing the tops of her thighs, teasing the bare skin underneath.

It was torture. Sweet, perfect, unbearable torture.

I wanted to touch her. Hell, my fingers actually twitched at my sides from the effort of not reaching for her.

To cup her face.

To run my hands over her waist.

To slide my fingers up those legs I’d dreamed about for years.

But I didn’t move.

Because she was looking at me like she was still deciding. Like one wrong move could shatter whatever fragile thing was blooming between us.

And fuck, I didn’t want to ruin this.

So I just stood there, my jaw clenched, my hands balled into fists, heart pounding in my throat…

Trying like hell not to reach for the only girl who’s ever made me lose my mind without even touching me.

Fuck

God, she was beautiful.

And terrifying.

Because she wasn’t saying a word.

Not one damn word.

Her legs were bare. Her lips parted. Her eyes locked on mine.

And still… she didn’t say a word.

God, say something.

The room felt like it shrank in on me.

I swore I could hear the damn clock ticking.

That huge, ugly thing on the wall—some overpriced crap a designer once said gave “character” to the space.

I’d rip it off the wall by morning.

The seconds stretched like hours.
And she… she just stood there.

Silent.

I felt the panic crawl up the back of my neck, my lungs tightening like someone had reached in and squeezed.

Was that it? 

Was this all she wanted? 

Just sex?

Not me—not my heart, my soul, the pieces I was willing to hand over without thinking.

Just a body. 

A distraction.

I clenched my jaw, forcing my voice to come out steady. It didn’t.

“I—” My throat was dry. 

“I just need you to know…”

Her eyes flickered slightly, but she still didn’t say anything.

My chest ached with every beat.

“I’m not seeing anyone,” I said quietly. 

“I’m not sleeping with anyone. Haven’t… haven’t touched anyone since I found out the truth. Since I knew you were innocent.”

I tried to breathe, but my lungs burned.

“I didn’t want anyone else.”

I swallowed.

“Couldn’t even look at anyone else.”

My fists curled at my sides, like holding on to something might help me keep it together.

“I’m clean, Winter. I’ve been clean because…”

I looked at her. Looked into her.

“…because you’re the only one I want.”

My voice dropped, hoarse. 

“Even if you don’t feel the same way. Even if this-this moment-is all I ever get… I needed you to know that.”

Still, she was silent.

And God, it felt like she was deciding the fate of my entire fucking world.

Because I wasn’t that cold, arrogant asshole anymore.

Not with her.

Not when everything in me was screaming her name.

I was just a man. 

A fool.

She didn’t say anything right away.

Didn’t pull back.

Didn’t move forward either.

Just stood there, eyes wide, lips parted slightly, breathing shallow—and silent.

And that silence?

It f**king shattered me.**

**My heart pounded like it wanted out of my chest, and the words I’d just said echoed back in my head like a bomb I didn’t mean to drop.**

**“I love you, Snowflake.”**

**God. God.** 

**Why the hell did I say that?**

**My throat closed.**

**Shit.**

**Maybe I shouldn’t have said it.** 

**Maybe it was too soon.** 

**Too much.** 

**Too f**king intense.

She came to me, trusting me, raw and hurting, asking me to take something sacred—and instead of just being there, instead of holding her, loving her in silence, I said it.

The word I’d been running from for years.

Love.

And the way she looked at me now…was she stunned? 

Scared?

Was I ruining it?

Was I pushing her too fast when she’d just opened up to me in the most vulnerable way possible?

You idiot. 

She wanted you to take her virginity—to help her forget, to feel close, to feel something real. And what do you do?

You drop the L-bomb like a f**king moron.**

**My jaw clenched, panic rising.** 

**I didn’t want to scare her.** 

**Didn’t want her to think I expected anything.** 

**I just—felt everything.**

**And now I wasn’t sure if I’d f**ked it all up.

I wanted to rewind. Not take it back, but maybe… waited.

Waited until she was ready to hear it.

I kept my hand on her cheek, but my chest felt like it might cave in.

Say something, 

Please.

Anything.

Because I didn’t know how to breathe until I knew I hadn’t just lost her with the one truth I swore I’d never say out loud.

Standing in front of the only girl I’d ever loved—terrified that she didn’t love me back.

WINTER –

My heart was beating so hard I swore he could hear it.

Thudding. 

Pounding. 

Screaming.

Like it was trying to say all the words I couldn’t find.

Zion’s voice still echoed in my head—low, rough, and terrifyingly honest.
Full of something so raw it almost hurt to hear.

> “I love you, Snowflake. Whether you’re ready or not. Whether you say it back or not. I love you. And I’m not going anywhere.”

And then—

> “Before we get intimate—I need to know. Not just for me. But because you matter. You're important to me.”

The words shouldn’t have hit me like they did.

But they slammed into me.

Straight into the walls I’d spent years building—cracking right through them like paper-thin lies.

I blinked, and my mouth parted, but nothing came out.

Not a sound.

Zion was still speaking, voice low and steady, but I couldn’t make out the words anymore.

Not over the single word pounding through my skull like a drumbeat.

Love.

Love.

Love.

I couldn’t breathe. 

Couldn’t think.

He loved me. 

He really—

My chest ached from the force of it.

Say something, Winter. 

Say something.

But I just stood there, heart thundering in my ribs, body frozen in place while he stared at me with the kind of eyes that saw everything. 

That waited.

God, I was a mess.

I mentally slapped myself. 

Get a grip. 

He just told you he loves you. 

He’s standing right in front of you, vulnerable as hell, and you’re acting like a deer in headlights.

I sucked in a shaky breath. My lips finally moved.

Because he needed to hear it too.

And I needed to say it.

I stared up at him, barely breathing. My throat tightened.

“Do you even like me, Snowflake? Maybe even love me a little?”

God.

I could barely look at him. My whole body was a storm—hot, cold, aching, pulsing with want and fear and hope all tangled up into one unbearable knot.

I’d spent so long pretending I didn’t feel this. Pretending I didn’t look for him in every room. 

Pretending his silence didn’t cut me. 

His gaze didn’t undo me.

Pretending I didn’t care.

But I did.

I always had.

And now—he was looking at me like I mattered. Like I wasn’t some accident he happened to want. Like he chose me.

“…because you’re the only one I want.”

His voice was low—hoarse, like the words had been dragged straight from his chest.

He swallowed hard, eyes locked on mine, and then—

> “Even if you don’t feel the same way… even if this-this moment-is all I ever get…”

“I needed you to know that.”

And somehow, those quiet words hit louder than any shout.

I stared at him.

At Zion.

Not the version the world saw—the untouchable, sharp-tongued boy with fire in his blood—but the one in front of me now. Stripped down. Bare. Shaking, just barely, like he’d handed me something fragile and wasn’t sure if I’d drop it or not.

He looked so damn vulnerable it cracked something in me.

Like he was preparing himself for heartbreak, for rejection, and doing it anyway—because loving me mattered more than protecting himself.

God. 

Tell him. 

Say something.

My throat tightened. My pulse was a storm.

And for the first time… I realised I wasn’t scared anymore. Not of him. Not of love.

Because this wasn’t just a moment.

It was everything.

“I…”

The word barely made it out. It caught, trembling halfway between my ribs and my throat, trapped in the whirlwind of my heartbeat.

Zion’s hand moved—gentle, almost reverent—as he cupped my cheek. 

His thumb brushed softly along my skin like he was afraid I’d vanish if he pressed too hard. Like I was something precious. Breakable.

“You what, Snowflake?” he asked, his voice low and raw, thick with things unsaid.

I swallowed, hard.

He looked like he was holding his breath—like he was bracing for the moment I’d run.

But I didn’t want to run.

I wanted to fall.

And I already had, hadn’t I?

I had been falling for him since the beginning… since before the hate, before the silence, before the years we lost to misunderstanding.

My heart was thundering so hard it hurt. I wasn’t sure if I could speak, not without my voice cracking or my knees giving out. But I had to. I had to.

Because he needed to hear it.

And I needed to say it.

“I do…” I whispered, barely more than a breath.

His brows pinched slightly, like he hadn’t heard me.

So I swallowed hard, took a shaky step closer, and looked up at him—at the guy who used to be a walking storm in my life, who I once thought hated me, and now… was the safest place I’d ever known.

“I love you, Zion.”

His breath hitched.

“I didn’t know it at first,” I admitted, fingers curling around the hem of his shirt I was wearing. 

“I think… I was scared to. Scared to even hope that you could feel anything real for me. So I convinced myself it wasn’t love. That it couldn’t be.”

I looked up at him, heart thudding like a drum against my ribs. 

“But it was. It is. And it’s been there—quiet and constant—buried under everything I didn’t want to feel.”

“...It was always you....”

I placed my palm over his chest, right where his heart was pounding like it couldn’t keep up with mine.

“I’m not scared of you,” I whispered. 

“Not of your words. Not of your love. And I’m not just doing this to forget everything else.”

I looked at him, steady and unflinching, giving him every ounce of certainty I had left.

“I want this. I want you.”

Then I leaned in and pressed the softest kiss to his chest—right over his heart. Right where it beat the loudest.

He sucked in a sharp breath, like I’d just knocked the air out of him.

“Fuck,” he muttered, voice raw and trembling.

His hands, which had been cradling my cheeks so gently, dropped to my waist—gripping me like he needed to ground himself. 

Like letting go wasn’t an option anymore.

His eyes-those dangerous, beautiful eyes—went glassy for a second.

I stood on my toes, brushing my lips against his jaw.

“I love you,” I whispered again.

Zion moved before I could even take another breath.

His arms wrapped around me so tightly it knocked the air from my lungs—and then he growled against my skin, voice low, rough, wrecked.

“Fuck, Snowflake…” His forehead pressed to mine, eyes burning into me. 

“I love you too. So fucking much.”

And then his lips were on mine.

There was no hesitation. 

No gentleness. 

Just pure, desperate need.

He kissed me like he’d been dying to do it for years. Like the words had torn something loose inside him—and now, nothing could stop what was coming next.

And I didn’t want to stop it either.

Not when I finally knew…

He was mine.

And I was his.