“Hey,” I said, raking a hand through my hair to get it out of my face, throwing an ab curl and a bicep flex in for good measure.
Clutching the phone at her ear, she stared at my chest and bit her bottom lip.
When I smirked, I swear to God the woman squeaked.
“Kristen, I have to go.” She didn’t say goodbye before hanging up.
My smile grew.
“Hey,” she said, dropping the phone to the counter. Her eyes once again flashed down to my chest. “Do you…uh…need to borrow a T-shirt?”
I shook my head. “Nah. I’ve got clothes in my bag.”
“Right,” she said stiffly. Giving me her back, she turned toward the oven. “I…um…don’t have an assistant to call for dinner delivery, so I made some burgers. You hungry? They’re still warm. I was gonna come wake you up in a minute.” She pulled a cookie sheet out of the oven and placed it on top of the stove.
Half of the pan was covered with my favorite seasoned sweet potato fries, and the other side had two handmade beef patties.
I snagged a fry, popped it in my mouth, then spoke around it. “Was this before or after you told Kristen about my huge cock?”
Her back shot ramrod straight. “I…don’t know what you’re talking about.”
Chuckling, I slid a hand around to her stomach from behind and placed a kiss at the curve of her neck. “Fine. But you wanna tell me why you’re freaking the fuck out?”
She sighed, her chin falling to her chest, her hand lifting to cover mine. “Oh, I don’t know. Maybe because you’re half naked in my kitchen right now after we had mind-blowing sex and where I confessed I miss you and you swore you were going to eventually propose again?”
“Mmm.” I hooked my arm over her chest and pulled her flush against my front. “Yeah, but I said I missed you, too. And that I was gonna fix us. And then you made me burgers in a little, blue nightgown.”
“I’m serious, Roman. This is too much. Combined with the embryo thing, I can’t handle this right now. We need to slow down.”
I inhaled deeply, filling my lungs with her sweet, floral scent, then kissed the other side of her neck. “How long did I wait the first time?”
She tried to step out of my grasp as she huffed, “This isn’t the first time anymore.”
“No. But, baby, you have to understand—we’re creeping on two days since I got you back. This is me taking it slow.”
“Roman, please. You can’t fix years’ worth of problems in minutes. I need time.”
But she’d had two fucking years of time. I wasn’t waiting even a minute longer. My life was with her. It always had been. It always would be.
I released her long enough to step in front of her. Then I shoved my hands under her arms and lifted her to sit on the counter beside the stove. Parting her legs, I stepped between them, resting my hands on her bare thighs and announced, “Shit went down today. And I really need to fill you in, but I need your head straight on where we are before we can move forward to that.”
“What went down today?” she asked, worry flashing over her face.
“Your head straight on what’s happening between us yet?”
She scoffed. “No. But at least I’d know what shit went down today and won’t be lost on both accounts.”
I bent at the knees so we were eye level and said, “Let’s get you straight. Then we’ll talk about the shit.”
She rolled her eyes. “Money has made you bossy.”
“No. Living without you has made me realize that time’s wasting. And I’m done watching the clock.”
She opened her mouth to reply, but I silenced her with a kiss.
Her mouth was stiff at first, but it was Elisabeth. She soon became pliable.
And then she came alive.
Her arms wrapped around my neck, bringing me closer. I forced myself away when I felt the tip of her tongue touch my bottom lip.
I had minutes.
Not years—which is what it was going to take if her tongue entered the equation.
“I got out of the military because it wasn’t ever going to provide me with the life I wanted for myself. I was a single, twenty-seven-year-old guy, and I wasn’t getting any younger. When my time came up, the decision was easy. Between deployments, I had saved up around a hundred grand, so I moved home and dropped it all in a little building in downtown Atlanta in order to open Leblanc Consulting. I made twenty-two thousand dollars that first year. It was a fucking joke. But I had no doubt it could have been a success with time.”
She raised an eyebrow. “I know all of this, Roman.”
And she did.