Ever After Awaits (Layla) novel Chapter 135

Ever After Awaits

Chapter 135: Layla POV

“Layla,” Xavier says, his voice quieter now, almost reverent–like. “Tell me I can kiss you.”

My name on his lips is a question wrapped in worship. A whisper that threads its way beneath my skin and anchors itself deep inside my soul.

I lift my gaze to his, and the world around us narrows. The lines of his face are familiar now–the strong jaw, the tension riding his shoulders, the way his eyes soften only for me. There’s a particular type of vulnerability in them that I’ve never seen from him until now. Not even when he said he was sorry. This isn’t about guilt. It’s about hope.

So, I nod. Once. Slowly.

At my silent consent, his breath leaves him like he’s been waiting for this moment forever.

And then he moves.

His hands cradle the sides of my face with a tenderness that guts me before his fingertips slide into my hair, curling near the base of my skull as he tilts my head slightly, positioning me like I’m something precious. His thumbs graze my cheekbones as he looks at me as if his whole world starts and ends with me. in that moment. Dipping his head slowly, his mouth finally finds mine.

The kiss is the embodiment of a storm.

There is no hesitation, and no polite beginnings or hesitant pacing. It’s heat and ache and reverence all at once. His lips press into mine with a kind of need that unravels me. A type of hunger that isn’t greedy but worshipful–like he’s been dying for this but didn’t think he deserved it. And I give it to him, as I melt into

1. it. Into him.

My hands slide further up his chest, feeling the thrum of his heartbeat beneath my palms, and when I reach the collar of his shirt, I fist the fabric there, anchoring myself to him. He groans, low and rough, and it vibrates between our bodies like a live wire.

His mouth parts slightly against mine, and when his tongue brushes the seam of my lips, I open for him without hesitation, gasping his name as he deepens the kiss. It’s messy and hot and oh so beautiful, as my lungs forget what to do, and my skin burns everywhere he touches me.

His hands leave my face only to travel downward, coasting over my neck, my shoulders, my sides, and finally settling at my waist. He then pulls me against him so tightly that I can feel every inch of him, every ridge and line and breath.

And God, the way he kisses me? It’s as if I’m his last chance to feel something good.

So I answer him with everything I have.

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Chapter 135: Layla POV

Lowering my hands slowly, they move beneath his shirt when they reach its hem, my fingertips skating over the toned curve of his ribs, the sharp edge of his spine, the heat of his muscular back. His skin is taut and trembling, his muscles tensing beneath my touch. He hisses through his teeth when my nails scrape lightly down, and he rewards me with another bruising kiss that has my knees literally going weak.

But he catches me, with his one arm around my back, the other sliding down to curl around my hip and anchoring me there. My legs threaten to give way, but his body is solid and sure–the only thing holding me together as everything else around me spins apart.

I feel him everywhere–the scent of his sea breeze cologne, the roughness of his jaw as it grazes my sensitive skin, the warmth of his breath between kisses. And all of it sinks into me. Deeper than I thought

it could.

Then our kiss slows, turning molten and languid. And it’s a different kind of hunger. One that asks, ‘What if we don’t have to go back to how it was?‘ and ‘What if this is real now?‘

His lips brush against mine in gentle, fluttering passes, like he’s memorizing every sigh I let slip, while my one hand slides around to his chest again, to the warm skin right over the racing drum of his heart, and

then rests there.

And finally–finally–we break apart, but just barely. Standing forehead to forehead, his breathing is uneven, but so is mine.

Neither of us speaks. Because, for once, there’s nothing left to say.

After a moment, his hand that was on my hip lifts to brush a strand of hair from my cheek. “Will you come with me? Just one more place,” he says in a voice that’s soft yet gravelly.

I glance up at him, still breathless and still warm from our kiss. “If you say it’s your secret lair where you keep all your back–up brooding outfits, I’m out.”

He huffs a laugh, the sound breaking through the tension like sunlight through fog. “No lair. Just…. Something I want you to see.”

I nod, my voice soft but sure, when I say, “Okay.”

He steps back slowly, his hand gliding down my arm towards my hand where he laces our fingers together, giving me room but never letting go of me completely. It stays intertwined with mine as he leads me across the parking lot. As the gravel crunches under our feet, the silence between us isn’t uncomfortable anymore. It’s full of what just happened and what it might mean.

When we reach his car, he opens the passenger door for me without a word, his hand brushing lightly against my waist as I slide into the seat. It’s chivalrous and intimate all at once, and it makes something deep inside my chest ache in a good way.

He rounds the front, slips into the driver’s side, and starts the engine, and the hum of it fills the now

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Chapter 135: Layla POV

comfortable quiet that wraps itself around us.

I glance at him as he pulls out of the lot. “You’re not going to tell me where we’re going?”

He smirks and lifts our joined hands from where they’ve come together over the center console as if drawn to each other on instinct. “Spoiling the mystery now would ruin its dramatic reveal.”

I roll my eyes but can’t stop the smile that’s tugging at my lips. “Dramatic reveals require trust, you know.”

“Good thing you already gave me yours back there,” he says, nodding his head in the general direction of the parking lot we just left, while squeezing my hand gently.

With silent affirmation, I look out my side window, the town passing us by in blurs and colors, but I don’t care where we’re headed.

Because his hand is in mine, and there are no more unsaid truths between us.

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