“I always was. You just never let me drive.”
He turns the whiskey bottle in his hands. “Because it’s the place I swore I’d never come back to. And I thought—if I could survive being here, maybe I could survive anything.” xev bellringer ride
“I always leave the keys.”
He unzips my jacket like he’s unwrapping something sacred. His lips find my shoulder—not urgent, just present. I push his hands away when he reaches for my belt, then pull them back. I want him uncertain. I want him to earn this. “I always was