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This is what I get for talking a big game with Lily! I thought I could lay it on thick, but now I just want to lie down and pass out because I can feel change in the air. I can feel it transmitting from Nathan’s fingertips through the fabric of my dress and seeping into my veins. We step into the hallway, and I know we’re not coming back out the same people as before.
“I’m going to take three steps back to you and put my hands on your hips.” His eyes rove over me, and he squints just below my chin. “Maybe your jaw, maybe the back of your neck. We’ll see. And then I’m going to kiss you.” I. Can’t. Feel. My. Toes.
I catch his lips again, and my blood hammers through my veins. Now that I’ve tasted his kiss, I’m addicted. I’ll be chasing this sensation for the rest of my life.
“You look like someone should be fanning you and feeding you grapes. What are you waiting for?” she asks curiously. “Come around here and find out.” I’m sexy in my dreams. Those brown eyes widen, but she complies. Her sneakers squeak a little with every step. Then she’s standing beside me, and I reach out and take her hand. Warm skin. Oh no. THAT’S REAL SKIN, PEOPLE!
“Can I have my clothes?” I extend my hand toward the bundle she’s clutching, but she holds it up and away from me. “Not yet.” I sputter a laugh because I don’t know what else to do. She’s ogling me. Very openly. This is new—and I’m not sure how to proceed. This is not on the list. “Do you think I’ll get them any time soon?” “I suspect so, but the jury is still out.” She sounds like someone hit her with a tranquilizing dart.
When Nathan’s voice reaches me, low and quiet, I almost think I’ve heard him wrong. “Yeah, but that was when it was just fake.”
Are we friends? Or are we more?
He chuckles almost under his breath. “Why are you blabbering?” I stare right at him and blurt my truth in one long word vomit. “Because I told you I like your soul and you didn’t respond.”
“I didn’t realize there was a time limit.” “There is. There’s always a time limit. And now I know you hate my soul.” He takes my phone from my hand, fiddles with it, and sets it carefully back onto the coffee table. “Some people need more time to get their answer right. It’s not fair to give a time limit.”
You can’t wait forever.” I realize now that he’s angled the phone on the coffee table, setting it up so that it’s facing us. He looks at me again. “I disagree. I think some things are worth waiting for, no matter how long it takes.”
Next, her sharp blue eyes turn to me, and I wonder what lecture I’ll receive. She gets close—closer than close—and narrows her eyes like she’s looking into a crystal ball. “You’ve been kissing Nathan.” I gasp. “How did you know that?!”
“Your ability to shoulder everything, to give 200 percent of yourself all the time, to be perfect at everything you attempt…these are not the attributes that make you a valuable human being.” I pause. “And they are not why I fell in love with you.”
“I fell in love with you because you’re goofy. You’re fun. Your heart is so big I don’t know how it fits in here,” I say, pressing my hand to his chest. “You’re a terrible singer. You make me soup when I’m sick. You bought me tampons that time I was laid out on the couch with cramps and couldn’t move. You didn’t even send someone else for them. You went yourself!”
“So don’t say you’re not worthy or deserving, because you are to me. You always will be.”
“I love you too,” he whispers over and over again. “I love you, Bree. I love you. I always have.”
“Let me take care of you,” I say, looking up into his hesitant eyes. “Please?” He relents and hands me his keys. “Thank you.”
“Do you see now? You’re always giving me things that remind you of me, but I’m over here stealing things that remind me of you. I’m not humoring you, Bree. I’m not taking this lightly. I’m so devastatingly in love with you, it hurts sometimes—and I have been since high school.”
“I’ve been dying for you to love me back—but I never thought you would. Remember when you found out I’m celibate and I told you it was to help my game? That was a complete lie. I’ve been celibate because I am so gone for you I couldn’t even stomach the thought of another woman anywhere near my bed. She would never be you.” He cradles my face. “I love you with everything I am, and that’s never going to change for me. I think I should be the one making sure you’re not just humoring me.”
“I’ve loved you since the day you tied my shoe on the track. You didn’t tell me it was untied, you just tied it.”
“Bree, that was the first day we met.” His tone says, Don’t toy with me, woman. “I know. That’s the day it all started for me.”
“Do you mean to tell me…we’ve both loved each other all this time and never said anything?” I laugh even though it’s not funny at all. I run a finger over one of his eyebrows. “Yes. I think so.”
His weight. GAH. Golden taut skin. OOF. That ripped abdomen I finally get to dance my fingers across. MMM.
He kisses me deeply, thoroughly, lavishly. His hand slides under the back of my shirt, and that calloused skin scrapes delicious fire over mine. I feel branded.
Bree is everything I aspire to be, everything I love, everything I desire. She holds my heart, and, with all that I am, I hope she never gives it back.
He points at me like he’s getting ready to toss me the winning catch. “Bree Cheese. Still with me?” Cupping my hands around my mouth, I yell, “Always!”
“Don’t be nervous,” he says, plucking my thoughts right out of my head. “I am though. I’ve wanted it for too long, and you might be disappointed. I might not be enough.” His smile is only a hint. A whisper on his mouth. He leans down and nuzzles his face against my neck, five o’clock shadow a murmur of delight. “You will always be enough.”
I smile as he touches his lips to both of my dimples. “I missed you too.” “Prove it.” He captures my mouth again, and just as our kiss takes a delicious turn, our front door flies open once again. I scream. Jamal screams. Price screams. Lawrence screams. Derek screams. Nathan growls.
