Unblinking, he slid a hand down and squeezed my ass. “Then you’d be lying to us both.”
I held his hazel eyes, unwilling to look away, but I was scared that, one day, I wouldn’t have a choice. His grand entry through the door had been amazing, but it hadn’t cured my anxiety.
“I need you to swear to me that this isn’t one of your impulsive, half-assed decisions, because I can’t handle that, Till. I need this to be real.”
Leaning forward, he lost the staring match as he captured my mouth. It was a really good kiss, but it wasn’t an answer. I tried to move out of his grasp, but his arms tightened around me.
“She was terrible,” he whispered.
“Who?”
“My wife.”
My head snapped back. “Excuse me?”
“Her name was Natasha. She talked all the time and was addicted to shoes. Flint and Quarry hated her, but that was okay because she hated them more. She bit her nails, so it didn’t feel very good when she scratched my head. Her boobs were a decent size, but there wasn’t a single freckle on them.” He sucked in a dramatic breath before playfully choking out, “She didn’t even know how to make those cheesy potatoes. It was torture.” He smiled then grazed his teeth across my neck.
“What the hell are you talking about?” I snapped, not even remotely amused by his little story.
“I spent the last hour envisioning the nightmare I would eventually find myself in if I didn’t get my shit together and actually wake up. It was easily the worst hour of my entire life. It’s just . . . I’ve been trying to keep this overwhelming need to have you separate from our friendship for so long, Eliza. But the lines are all blurred, because our friendship is why I fell for you so hard in the first place. See, I love these.” He brushed the back of his hand over my peaked nipples.
I gasped.
“And this.” He slid his hand down to my ass. “And I especially love this.” He slipped a hand into my pajama pants and lazily glided a finger through my folds.
I sucked in a breath, and he groaned as he dropped his forehead to mine.
“But even if all of that was suddenly gone, I would still be madly in love with you. I wanted to spend forever with you at thirteen. Nothing has or ever will change that. Eliza, I love you. And I am unquestionably serious about spending the rest of my life with you.”
They were really good words.
But Till Page was saying them . . . to me.
They were perfect words.
It was the truth.
All of it.
“I love you too,” she said with tears rolling down her cheeks.
I wanted to wipe them away . . . but . . . my hand was still moving in her pants. It was a serious conundrum.
I pressed a soothing kiss to her mouth and whispered against her lips, “You have to stop crying. I can’t put the moves on you if you’re bawling.”
She laughed, but cried even harder. It was an easy decision at that point.
With two hands, I scooped her off her feet and carried her to the couch. She clung to my neck as I sat down with her on my lap.
“You swear this is real, Till?”
“Well, I’m not exactly an expert on reality.”
She laughed into my neck.
“But, Eliza, it’s absolutely real to me.”
Lifting her head, she stared into my eyes. “I love you.”
“I love you too.” I gently took her mouth in a slow kiss.
Although it started out slow, Eliza took it deeper as she moved to straddle my lap. Then, dropping her hands from the hold on my neck, I lost her mouth as she murmured, “Show me.”
In one fluid movement, she peeled the T-shirt over her head, revealing her lack of a bra, and my cock instantly grew between us. “I could touch you all day long and it wouldn’t even be close to showing you how I feel.”
She sucked my bottom lip into her mouth, releasing it on a sexy sigh. “Well, I think you should try.”
I absolutely agreed with her. She stood from my lap as I dragged her pants down. I wasn’t happy until she was completely naked—just the way I imagined her every night before I fell asleep. But even as she stood in front of me, I couldn’t picture anything except Derrick’s hands on her every curve.
She settled back on my lap, her breasts swaying from the movement.
I dipped a finger between her legs. “Did he touch you here?”
“No.”
“Here?” I glided a hand up to squeeze her breast.
“No.”
I trailed the tip of my finger up to her neck as she tilted her head to the side, her eyes falling shut. “No,” she breathed.
I gently rubbed my thumb over her bottom lip. “Here?”
Her eyes popped open. She didn’t respond, but that was answer enough.
“Never again.” I kissed her. “No one ever touches these again.” I teased my tongue over her bottom lip before sucking it into my mouth. “Yeah?”