I couldn’t talk, but I nodded again. The tears were right there. They hadn’t fallen, but they were just waiting to go.
A tenderness came over him, and he laid me down on the bed. His hand gripped behind my shoulders, and the other was on my hip. I did nothing. I was like the most precious being to him as he lowered me down, so my head gently touched the bed. He stood above me, our eyes holding each other’s.
His hands fell to my jeans as he murmured, “I have an entire list of why I love you, so this could take a while.”
Please. I wanted nothing more.
He undid the button on my jeans, holding my gaze, and slid down the zipper. He paused for a moment and tugged them down past my hips. He murmured as he pulled them off, “I love how you crinkle your nose when you need to tell me something, and you’re scared—like if I smell and you don’t want to hurt my feelings, or earlier tonight, when I knew you wanted time alone with Heather, but you didn’t want to make me feel left out.”
I thought he understood I wanted time with her. We hadn’t said the words, but I’d been right.
My lip started to tremble. Emotion like I’d never felt before was pressing down over me. My blood started to feel energized. I was excited for it. I was waiting for it.
Mason knelt on the bed, and his hand touched my flat stomach. His fingers spread out, flattening his palm, and he continued to touch me only there. “I love how your eyes kind of go wild, and you toss back your head when you’re pissed about something.” His other hand touched my chin. “You lift your chin, and you get this look, like you’re going to bulldoze your way through a tornado if you have to. No one’s going to stop you.”
I pressed my lips together, trying to stop the tears.
It was useless. One slid down, making a lone trek to the side of my chin.
Mason caught it, touching it with his finger. He brought it to his lips like it was the most normal thing to do. He slid his other hand up my stomach, lifting my shirt with the motion. Deep flames of lust were licking at me. They were growing more and more, and I bit down on the inside of my cheek. As his hand rested over my breast, my entire body was trembling.
I wanted him to touch me. I wanted him to kiss me. I wanted more.
Arching my back, I moved up against his hand, but he pressed me back down. He was firm but so tender.
I felt like my heart was being shattered into a million pieces, but he was putting each of them back together, one by one.
He pressed a soft kiss between my breasts. “I love how you don’t look at my family with contempt, but you could. You have every right to do so. My mom’s a stuck-up bitch who thinks you’re not good enough for me, but she’s wrong.” He lifted my shirt off me and came back down, cupping the back of my neck. He was still poised above me, so he wasn’t lying on top of me or next to me. He was just above me. He dropped down to nuzzle behind my ear as he added, his breath caressing my skin, “She’s so severely wrong because I’m the one not good enough for you, but she hasn’t figured that out yet.”
He was both wrong and right. His mom was a pretentious bitch, but I could never hate her. I got him from her. I wanted to say those words to him, but my throat ceased working long ago. I was helpless, only listening to the very words I asked from him.
Mason reached underneath me, undid my bra, and slid it off my arms. He drew it out, letting the bra act as a caress as he pulled it from me. He watched me the entire time, never looking away. “I love how you fidget with your shirt or your sleeves when you’re distracted or thinking about your mom.”
“I do?” There. I’d managed to get that out, even though my voice was hoarse.
He nodded and moved to his side. He leaned down, and his cheek grazed against mine from the movement. “You think about her more than you realize, and I know you miss her, even though you hate her, too.”
The tears slid down now. I had no idea that I thought about Analise, but he was right. The tears weren’t going to be stopping anytime soon. Grief hit me full bloom in the chest, but it was the good kind of grief. It was the kind that had been holed up there, submerged so deep that I hadn’t known it had taken root. It was lifted now, pulled up to the surface, and I felt it lessen, even just slightly.
Mason whispered, pressing kisses down my throat, “And I really love how you love me. Completely. Irrevocably. Overwhelmingly. Selflessly. Unconditionally.” He lifted his head, peering right down into me. His lips were just above mine. “Because I don’t deserve it, but somehow, I got it, and I will never, ever do anything to lose it.”
I was a mess.
Tears were flowing down my face.
I was smiling, crying, and trying to talk. All at once.
I wanted to reach up and hug him back. I wanted to tell him how much I loved him back, but no words could get out.