She moans. “And you want babies with me?”
Oh, God, my entire body’s practically convulsing, I’m so fucking turned on. “More than anything,” I gasp.
“Then make love to me. We’ll let fate decide.”
Without a single reservation or doubt, I pull her arms above her head, clasp my fingers in hers, and burrow inside her, groaning loudly as I do—and, the minute I get all the way inside her, I feel a sensation like nothing I’ve experienced before—a melting inside me—a fusion of our bodies and souls. “I love you,” I say, euphoria slamming into me. “Oh my God, you feel so good.”
She mumbles something incoherent underneath me, squeezing my fingers in hers. I begin moving inside her, kissing her voraciously, my body telling her everything my words can’t convey. Oh, God, I’ve never felt so good, so fuckingsureabout anything in my life. Every splintered part of me has been made whole. She’s the one I’ve been waiting for my whole life—the one who makes this crazy, fucked-up world make perfect sense. “I love you,” I choke out as I come inside her, spilling my seed into her, taking a leap of faith. “Oh my God, Tessa, I love you.”
Tessa stiffens as her body climaxes underneath mine, a declaration of love on her lips.
After a moment, we unclasp our fingers and she embraces me tightly.
When I look into her eyes, I’m worried to find tears in them.
“What’s wrong?”
“Nothing’s wrong. Literally, nothing.” She chokes up. “I’m euphoric.”
I roll off her and put on some music (“Marry Me” by Jason Derulo), pull her to me, and kiss her. “This is gonna be a great life, my pretty chickadee.”
“The best life.”
We listen to the music for a moment, both of us lost in our thoughts—but, after a moment, I chuckle to myself.
“What?” she asks.
“I was just picturing us at the movies with Josh and Kat and you telling Josh to get his own fucking popcorn.”
She giggles.
I squeeze her. “So do you think we just made a baby?”
“Probably not—I don’t think the timing is right. But if we did, it was meant to be.”
“You wouldn’t freak out if we did?”
She smiles. “No. I mean, yes, I’d totally freak out, but not because I’d be second-guessing anything—only because getting pregnant is gonna freak me out, no matter when it happens. What about you?”
I consider my answer for a long beat, not wanting to say anything short of the whole truth. “I’d be absolutely elated if we just made a baby.”
She considers that answer for a moment. “Growing up, I thought walking down the aisle with a baby bump would be the worst possible thing. But after watching Kat do it so joyfully, and seeing Josh morph into a husband and father before my eyes, I don’t think there are any one-size-fits-all rules about love and marriage anymore.”
I stroke her face, marveling at how beautiful she is. “I couldn’t agree more.”
I kiss her softly, my heart melting.
“Hey, guess what I just realized?” she says, her lips an inch from mine. “Congratulations, Romeo—you finally executed your ‘master plan.’”
A wide smile spreads across my face. “Yeah, but not in the way you mean. My ‘master plan’ wasn’t getting you into my bed. I lied.”
“What?”
“I mean, yeah, that wasstep oneof my master plan—but not the full plan. I just said that so I’d seem sane and wouldn’t scare you off.”
She laughs. “Yetanotherlie? Jesus, dude, you’re pathological.”
I laugh.
