Blackout

Before Elena could respond, the kitchen went black.

The storm had finally taken the power lines. The hum of the refrigerator died, leaving only the sound of the wind howling against the siding.

In the darkness, the dynamic shifted. The visual world vanished, leaving only the sensory. The smell of him. The heat of him.

"Kael," Elena whispered.

He didn't move away. In the dark, his hand found her waist. He pulled her against him. It wasn't gentle. It was the desperate, starving grasp of a drowning man finding land.

"Tell me to stop," Kaelen rasped, his forehead resting against hers. "Tell me you don't feel it. That pull. That tether."

Elena wanted to lie. She wanted to push him away and cling to her anger. It was safer.

But the tether was there. It had always been there. It was a physical ache in her chest that had started the day he left and hadn't stopped until he walked back through that door.

"I hate you for leaving," she whispered.

"I know."

"I hate that you bought the Inn."

"I know."

"I missed you so much it felt like dying," she admitted.

Kaelen let out a shuddering breath. "God, El."

He kissed her.

It wasn't a sweet reunion. It was a collision. It was five years of repressed longing and anger and fear pouring out in a single moment. Kaelen lifted her up, setting her on the edge of the table, stepping between her legs to get closer.

He kissed her like he was trying to breathe her in.

"We're soulmates," he murmured against her lips. "I don't care if you don't believe in that crap. I do. I felt you every day. I survived because of you."

He pulled back slightly, his hands framing her face in the dark.

"But I won't keep you in a cage," Kaelen said, his voice rough with emotion. "I bought the Inn to free you, not to trap you."

He reached for the document on the table. He took her hand and placed it on the paper.

"This gives me the right to evict your parents and sell the land," Kaelen said. "But it also gives me the right to burn it."

"What?"

"Choose, Elena," Kaelen said. "If you want me to go, I'll tear this deed up right now. I'll walk out into the ocean and you’ll never see me again. Your debt is paid either way. You're free."

"Or?" Elena asked, her heart hammering.

"Or," Kaelen pressed his forehead to hers again. "You admit that you belong with me. You let me take care of you. You let me be the bad guy so you don't have to be the strong one anymore."

Elena ran her hands over his shoulders, feeling the tension in his muscles. She traced the scar on his neck. She thought about the leaking roof. She thought about the lonely nights. She thought about the way he looked at her—like she was the only treasure he had ever really found.

She realized her anger was just grief wearing a mask. She didn't want to be the anchor anymore. She wanted to be swept away.

"Don't tear it up," Elena whispered.

Kaelen went still. "Say it."

"I belong with you," she said. "Don't you dare leave me again."

Kaelen groaned, a sound of pure relief, and pulled her back into a kiss that promised forever.

\---