I need her in my arms.
Now.
“I’ll just be simmering in my loneliness,” Reed calls out.
Andi reaches my open arms and jumps into them. It sends us staggering off balance, and I catch us with a spin. Her headphones are blaring a song that makes me smile more than a second before.
Fuck, she still smells like that orange body wash—even though she’s been on a six-hour plane ride.
When her feet hit the ground and we’re stable, I grin at her briefly before grasping her neck with both hands and kissing her.
I’ve fucking missed kissing her.
Our kiss is deliberate and haunting. It’s as obsessive as we are with one another.
I don’t think I’ll stop kissing her this week.
We only part when neither of us can breathe, when it’s becoming so much that if we continue, we’ll end up in the family bathroom while Reed keeps an annoyed lookout.
The smile she gives me when we part is just as addicting.
Her forehead leans against mine as we slow, fingers in my beard.
“This is still so weird,” she says about my not wearing the mask.
“Yeah?” I kiss her again. “It’s weird for me, too.”
“Hey—can we go get something to eat?” Reed calls out to us.
We ignore him.
I take Andi’s left hand in mine and turn it to where I can see the inside of her ring finger, and the butterflies swarm inside me when I see the tattoo there.
We may not be married, yet that didn’t stop us from having ’til Death’ tattooed on the inside of our left ring fingers.
Yet, the tattoo I love most is the anatomical heart on my chest with her hand wrapped around it.
It's the deal we made when I told her I wanted my handprint tattooed on her throat, and while that placement didn’t work out, my handprint is on her hip instead.
A compromise I was happily willing to settle for.
I lean in and kiss her forehead, prompting her to smile at me again.
“Hey, beautiful,” I whisper.
“I booked us a hotel after Christmas until New Year's,” she says. “And I brought a few surprises,” she adds, a wicked glint in her eyes.
“Oh, yeah?” I wrap my arm around her shoulders. “What did you bring us?”
“Something red. Possibly lace. Maybe leather.” Her brows raise, and I have to kiss her again.
“Starving brother over here,” Reed calls out.
Andi gives him a sideways glare. “You are ridiculous. Do you know that?”
Reed beams and holds out his arms. “I don’t get a hug?” he asks.
Andi shakes her head and hauls away from me.
