“Close your eyes.” I did and he grabbed my hand.
If any other man had asked me to blindly put my trust in them, I would never. But Hunter? I’d follow him to hell and back. As long as I was with him, I didn’t care.
He tugged me down the hallway and we entered a room. Hunter let go of my hand to flip some switches. “Okay, open.”
For a moment, I was speechless as I soaked in my spare room.
He converted it into a safe haven for my bookworm heart.
Black floor-to-ceiling bookshelves spanned two walls, stocked with all my romance titles from A to Z. A matching work desk with my bedazzling kit sat on the surface and a small velvet heart-shaped sofa lined the other walls. An art deco lamp, a leopard print rug, and fairy lights completed the newly renovated space.
And the pièce de resistance?
The Hero and Leander painting that Hunter bought from the auction now mounted on the wall above my sofa.
“I asked Anna and Layla to keep you busy for a few hours while I built the furniture and organized everything according to your taste.” He cleared his throat, a nervous blush smattering hischeekbones. Luna wiggled out of his hold to investigate the room herself. “I know you mentioned wanting to renovate this room, so I hope I did your vision justice.”
“Hunter, I…”
“Do you like it?” He held his breath.
“Like it?” I repeated, shocked. “I love it! Are you kidding me?”
Hunter’s relief was palpable when I beamed and jumped him, my arms and legs wrapping around him. I smothered his face in gentle pecks and he chuckled, tightening his arms around me. “Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. I can’t believe you did this for me. I’ll be spending all my time here.”
“What did we say about the T-word?”
“Shh.”Kiss. “Let me.”Kiss. “Express.”Kiss. “My appreciation.”Kiss. “I love this room.”Kiss. “So much, Hunter.”
“I’m glad you do,” he replied. “Figured you needed your own reading nook and a place to let your creativity thrive.”
I fall in love with him more and more and more every day. What will I ever do without him?He was becoming an integral part of me, like a vital organ, and I couldn’t fathom the possibility of ever losing him.
“Where have you been all my life?” I whispered.
It was perhaps one of the most important questions I’d ever asked.
His eyes crinkled at the corners endearingly as he grinned. “Right here in the city.”
If I knew he existed even before Josh’s birthday party, I’d have scoured the entirety of Montardor to find him. “You’ll never know how much I regret not striking up a conversation with you those four hundred and sixty-three days ago. If I could go back in time, I would change it all.”
“I wouldn’t.” Hunter shook his head. “I told you that I like our story and how it’s written. Don’t beat yourself over the past, baby. We’re exactly where we are supposed to be.”
I pressed my forehead to his. My red hair curtained around us, blocking the outside world until we were in our own little bubble. “And that’s all that matters, right?”
“Exactly.”
I could give Hunter a million thank-yous and a million gifts in return for all the abundance he brought into my life in such a short period. Yet I wanted my love to be the most powerful thing he received because I knew, at the end of the day, that was all he ever wanted.
All of me. In my rawest, truest form, loving him the way he deserved.
I almost told him right there and then how much I loved him. But Hunter, sensing the weight of my intense gaze as I watched him and came to the realization that I would do anything for him, recognized that words were insignificant to convey the magnitude of what I was currently feeling in this moment.
“Come on, Gabriela.” He ushered us out of the room, Luna right behind. “Let’s eat before our food gets cold.”
As the days went on, I realized that while Hunter’s love was quiet and comforting, it was also encompassing in its grandeur. Like the spring season filled with life after a barren winter. Like the gust of a strong wind blowing past you, plastering your clothes against your skin in a hug. Like the first shot of espresso in the morning, awakening all your cogs and preparing you for a whole new day of adventure. And like an ever-flowing current of water against rocks, softening even the harshest of surfaces.
I felt it all the time in my veins, in my muscles, in my bones. It sat inside of me like a peaceful entity, strengthening me with its pillars, raising me to unimaginable heights.
