“I always knew that you were mine, luna mia. I had planned to seek you out once we closed the deal with my father. That house is for us. If you hadn’t come back to me, it would have sat empty like my heart and my life because it’s always been you.”
She dragged in a sharp inhale just as Reid pulled on a branch, sending snow splattering over us. Her laughter filled the air, and I pulled her to me.
“Let’s bring it back to life,” she said as I kissed her again. I drew back and searched her eyes. “If that’s okay.”
“You mean now?”
Her head bobbed. “Take the tree there and decorate it.”
“And then?”
She shrugged. “A house needs love to bring it back to life. Maybe we spend the weekends there and stay in the city during the week.”
I had never thought it possible to love her any more than I did, but she kept surprising me.
“That sounds perfect. Ready to decorate this tree, Reid?”
“Finally,” he said with an exaggerated eye roll.
We stopped by the hotel and retrieved the bins of decorations, drove to the house, and spent the rest of the day decorating. Reid burned out after three bites of the pizza I ordered.
“Should we just stay here tonight?” Tori asked as I carried him up to my old bedroom. She tugged the covering off as I laid him down, pulling the comforter over him. A cleaning service maintained the house, ensuring there was no dust, so I didn’t worry about settling him there.
“There’s no bed in my parents’ room,” I admitted. It was the only room that had no furniture. While I’d had the house renovated and the furniture updated in all the rooms, I had only repainted and updated their room.
“Why not? The entire house is furnished.”
“I wanted to wait for you.” My eyes fell to the floor, but she forced them back to her.
“You really never gave up the hope that I’d return?”
Shaking my head, I asked, “Did you?”
Her eyes saddened. “No. Although I won’t share the number of scenarios that involved me giving you a piece of my mind.”
“Deserved,” I said, curling my fingers around the back of her neck. “You want to christen a few parts of the house?”
"Marking our territory?" she asked with a sexy arch of her brow.
“Absolutely.” I backed her out of the room, closing the door before leading her to my parents’ room—our room now—where I pinned her against the wall and worshipped every inch of her until touching her had my release so frenzied that I crashed, spiraling over the cliffs of ecstasy with her. Something I then did in several more rooms until we ended up sprawled on the couch, the cream furniture sheet covering our tangled bodies.
“I missed this,” she said, kissing my chest.
“Me, too.”
She leaned up on her elbow, her blue eyes a dusty navy. “Did you really wait for me? I mean, you’re a man, and I know that’s a lot to ask.”
I moved my hand behind my head to prop it some. “Why is that a lot to ask?”
“Well, we weren’t together, Gabe. There was nothing stopping you.”
“There was you, Tori. Always you. Although I didn’t want to think about it, I expected you to move on and find someoneelse.” I winced at the thought. “But I wanted no one else. And just because I’m a man, doesn’t mean I can’t control myself or that I need to have sex all the time. My hand sufficed.” I gave her a wink, loving how her cheeks grew an alluring shade of pink. “And plenty of memories of this unforgettable body to get me by.”
“It’s not the same,” she said, curving her hand over my jaw.
“No, it wasn’t because it wasn’t you, but sleeping with another woman wouldn’t have been you either. Every part of me has been yours since the moment we met, and if we had never crossed paths again, it would have remained yours.”
Tears made her eyes shimmer, and I brought her mouth to mine, relishing the sensation of having her so close to me, her lips to mine, her skin on mine.
