It All Started With a Diary

wybie

"You might want to reconsider if you're smart." His smirk jumped to my face as I wrapped my legs around him. Under the blanket, I could feel how soon my words reached him. "How about now?"

"You're insane if you think I only have one present for you." Kade grimaced as he shook his head with a curse. His head dipped to my chest before he blew out a shaky breath. "You're an unfair woman."

I continued my venture, entangling his hair in between my fingers, and shifting my hips. "Tell me."

His silence continued for a moment before he hissed, "Fine."

With a grin, I dropped my legs back to the mattress. His hands went underneath the blanket, dragging them back to his waist as he leaned over me. I was practically buzzing with anticipation as I waited.

I tilted my head once his lips shifted. "I've been working on this for awhile now," he started. "That's what Luke was texting me about, a confirmation." I nearly screamed as he paused.

"A confirmation?"

He drew out a sigh. "A confirmation that I'm out," he said, words slow as he examined my expression. "I'm out."

Out?

It was too early in the morning for my mind to process context clues. I continued to think, but when it hit, my chest caved in on me.

My legs fell on their own as I caught his eyes. "You're out of the cages," I breathed out.

His bunched eyebrows perked at my tone. "I am, baby."

"But, you're-you..." I couldn't even finish it.

Kade was out of the cages. The life he'd been in for years. The very thing that fueled him.

I blinked as he eyed me for a reaction. "Why?" That was the best I could do.

Finally, my airways managed to get out, "I mean...you've been there so long. Nearly a decade. As much as I hate it, I know that it helped you with a lot, that fighting and racing saved you."

Kade relaxed his body, a small smile stretching his lips. His cool hands caressed either cheek before settling there. "I have you, that's why."

With a shaky intake of breath, I whispered, "Kade."

His brows furrowed as he shook his head. "No, no. Kimberly, I don't want it. I don't need it. I don't need that life, if it even was one. My life began when I started loving you." His lips brushed over mine before he pulled away. "I knew when it threatened your life that I had to let it go. I can't lose you to it. It's selfish of me to ask you to worry for yours or my life because of it."

"Yes, it did help me," he continued. "It helped me take my anger out in the wrong way. It helped me continue to hide. It helped me continue to be angry at someone I should have never been angry at. You. That life, those people, that's not who or what I love. They didn't save me. You did."

My heart was running a marathon by the time he finished. I felt my eyes sting before I pulled him to the crook of my neck, my arms tight around him.

I felt him press a kiss to the skin. "Thank you," I mumbled, my voice cracking. "Thank you."

His hand stroked at the beginning of my back as he hugged me to him. "I told you that you would hate it." I rolled my burning eyes as he chuckled.

I smiled as he kissed a tear away on my cheek. "What about Chivo?"

At this, his smile fell. Mine followed with it.

My shoulders fell with my tone. "You still have to fight him," I said it more as a statement than a question.