She moans breathily. “I think it’s plenty fair.”
“Hmm,” I hum. “Come here.”
“Not yet.” She smiles against my lips. “I have one more.”
“You do?”
She nods as she backs away and moves off the edge of the bed. Whatever she grabs rattles in the packaging. As she returns, sitting on her heels, she smiles with her teeth in her lip, the box behind her back.
“I hope you like this one,” Natalia whispers, so shyly it’s nothing but cute. “You never brought it over so… I thought I could just buy it and it’ll be yours to leave here and play with me.”
My brows furrow and she whips it out from behind her, setting it on my lap.
My eyes fall to the cool box and my heart just explodes.This girl.This girl is mine and forever mine. Only mine.
“BeetlejuiceMonopoly.” I grin at the box, holding it in my hands. It’s one of the most precious things in this world I’ve ever been gifted. “Oh… oh my fucking—” I laugh and shake the box withBeetlejuiceon it. “I fucking love it, sweetheart.”
I set it aside carefully and find her smiling at me.
Smiling—because she’s smiling so much today—she crawls onto my lap, straddling my thighs, and wraps her arm around my neck. I hold myself up with a hand behind me, and my other arm wraps around her body, my hand gripping her opposite ass cheek.
“I’m here.”
“Are you happy, sweetheart?”
Even though her smile falters, like the question threw her off, it returns quickly. “Today, I am.”
“And every other day?”
“I try to be,” she murmurs. “But the days I spend with you are all happy. No exceptions.”
“None?”
“None.”
I have to kiss her for it, I alwayshaveto kiss her. Can’t ever not kiss her, probably not until after I’m dead. She sighs into my mouth, relief pouring out of her as her fingers twist in my hair.
My heart swells the way it always does around her. The organ sputters and trips and beats, all of it in her name.
I pull back just enough to leave us panting against each other’s mouths and I nudge my nose against hers to say,Hi.
She bumps my nose.Hi back.
“Nae sarang,” I whisper. “Saranghae.”
Natalia blinks, her head pulling back to look into my eyes. Her lips part in surprise and her extraordinary eyes gloss over as she breathes. “What?”
“Nae sarang,” I say again, “Saranghae.”
“You…” Her eyes line with water. “Saranghae,Rowan.”
She won’t say it in English, but I’ll take it. It means the same thing, doesn’t matter what language it’s said in.
“I love you,” I say, and the water spills from the corners of her eyes.
“I’m glad.” Natalia reaches behind me and pulls my chef’s hat back on. “Now, breakfast time. Butt naked.”
CHAPTER 36
