DEVLIN

The words slip out before I can cage them, hanging in the air between us like smoke from a gun I just fired.

“I love you.”

Fuck.

Fuck me.

This is embarrassing. I want to walk into a furnace and just burn into ashes.

Ella freezes before me, her breath catching sharp and sudden. Her wide, searching eyes lock desperately onto mine, and her lips part in stunned silence.

I don’t hear what she murmurs at first.

For one endless second, the cabin is so quiet I can hear the wind ...