And that scared her.
Was it so perfect that it would end? It would be so easy for it to. He could start drinking again, decide he didn’t want what she did, and that would be it. But she prayed it wouldn’t, because they just worked. Though she kept thinking that maybe she should have waited a bit longer. Thought it through a little more than she had.
But when she’d opened that door and saw his brown eyes trained on her, all she wanted was him. She’d always wanted him. She’d be lying if she said it was easy to live and breathe without him. Because it wasn’t. Watching each other, sending little grins, it all just felt so right. Like they were meant to do this. But was she in over her head? Was it too early to look at him and just know that this was forever?
“Did we rush this?” she asked suddenly as he brushed out his beard.
He shrugged, the comb stopping as his eyes held hers. “Do you love me?”
She nodded. “I do.”
“Then, no, we didn’t. There is no reason for two people who love each other not to be together.”
“But I didn’t even make you work for it. I just jumped you like a cat in heat.”
His grin grew. “Thank God,” he said with a wink, and she smacked him playfully on the arm.
“I’m serious!”
He chuckled, the sound swirling the desire in her belly as he laid his comb down before turning to reach for her. He pulled her into his arms, his deliciously naked body hard against hers as he nipped at her bottom lip. “You didn’t have to make me work for it, Kace. Don’t you know that I’ve been working to be with you for a while? I’ve been working on me, and I’m far from done. I still have growing to do, but I want to grow with you.”
All her previous fears always dissolved away when he held her gaze. Her heart thudded in her chest as she laced her fingers at the back of his head, and she couldn’t help but think that this could be it. “I loved the old you, and I’ll love the new you. I think it’s just the you part that has my heart.”
He grinned, dropping his mouth toward hers. She held her breath as his lips grazed along hers. “I’m not giving it back either.”
“I didn’t think you would. You don’t share well.”
“Got that right,” he said roughly before taking her mouth with his. Wrapping her arms around his neck, she melted into him as their mouths danced. Maybe she didn’t make him wait, maybe she didn’t make him work or grovel like some other woman would have but, in a way, she couldn’t. She had waited and wanted this for far too long. To be with the man she loved. To have her fairy-tale ending.
Jordie was her frog turned prince, and she wasn’t letting him go.
Pulling away, he kissed her nose. “I promise I’m gonna do right by you this time around.”
She smiled, her nose pressing into his, unable to say anything. Meeting her gaze, he squeezed his arms around her, pressing his lips to her nose.
“What’s wrong?”
“I’m scared,” she admitted, her eyes holding his. “Scared this is too good to be true.”
He nodded. “Yeah, I was just thinking the same thing.”
“Is that normal?”
His lips curved as he lifted her off the ground. “It’s our normal, and I’m good with it.”
Wrapping her arms tightly around his neck, she whispered, “Me too.”
He smiled against her lips before she closed her eyes and kissed him. As their mouths moved together, she clung to him as he carried her into his room, laying her down and covering her body with his. When she ran her fingers up his back, he looked down at her, his eyes drinking her in, and she couldn’t help but smile.
“I had no chance,” she whispered, her fingers moving along his jaw. “I should have known I had no chance when I first saw you standing in the kitchen.”
“What do you mean?” he asked, leaning into her hand, his hand coming up to cup her breast.