“I can’t be the reason you don’t take that—”
“Stop. That’s your head running interference.” He tapped my temple and shook his head. “Not interested in that. This . . .” The pads of his fingertips delved deeper into my skin. I prickled with goose bumps at their proximity to my breast. Combined with how much I missed him and all he’d done for me today, the sight of him was enough to make heat pool in my belly and drip lower. He had to stop touching me before I lost myself and gave in.
“Well,” he rasped as he lifted an eyebrow. “Tell me what you want. Not what you think is right or what’s best for me. What. You. Want.”
“I don’t want you to go,” I blurted in one hysterical breath. “Not to Seattle or upstate. I want you here. With me. I want you to move in with us. I know it was only for a few days but when I was with you and Victoria, I was . . . happy. Purely fucking happy.” I sniffled while Drew’s expression didn’t change. “And it’s all too soon and you’re young and having a kid around all the time isn’t something you planned for right now. I want you to not end up hating me for tying you down so early. But if you want to know what I want or what my heart wants, it’s you. But I can’t have—”
“How do you know you can’t or that’s not what I want? Or that I wasn’t just as happy when you and Victoria stayed with me? You remember what you overheard me say when Victoria asked me if I’d marry you? I said ‘yes,’ and I meant it. You’re it for me, Sara. Maybe I’m twenty-five and you always dismiss whatever I’m feeling for you as temporary, but I can assure you it’s not.” He grabbed my hand and held it with both of his.
“You’re not a sacrifice or a burden. I’m sorry it came out so wrong that night.” He lifted our joined hands and pressed a kiss on the inside of my palm. “I’d never see you or Victoria like that. You’re the love of my whole damn life and I’d be miserable away from you—like I’ve been the past few days. Maybe now, I could get that through your thick skull.”
“Drew—” He pressed his thumb over my lips and shook his head.
“You didn’t get the love you deserved in this house. But from me, you have it. Always. You have it without asking because it’s yours. I want what you want. All of it. So this time we wasted being apart is all pretty ridiculous, isn’t it?”
A sob bubbled out followed by another and before I knew it I was bawling. Drew inched closer and slid me onto his lap.
“Believe it or not, I’m not a crier. Like, at all.” I laughed as the tears cascaded down my cheeks. I’d always been well-versed in channeling tears into anger or general abrasiveness. I wiped my cheeks with the back of my hand. “Before you, I never felt loved before. And every time you would say something or do something that made me feel . . . everything about you is a beautiful gift, and the thought of the day I’d have to give it all back turns me into a blubbering idiot.”
He swiped away my tears with his thumbs as he shook his head. “You never have to give me back, same as I’m sure as hell never giving you back.”
“This is crazy,” I croaked as I snaked my arms around his neck, resting my forehead against his. “You really want to move in with me? With us?”
“Ask me,” he whispered, my tears slowing from the heat flooding my chest, and other places. I cupped his cheek, feathering my hand down the cropped bristles along his jaw.
“You shaved.” My thumb glided across his chin, skating around the outline of those plump lips that tasted every bit as delicious as they looked.Jesus, Sara. Focus.
“I needed to look presentable. Plus, lately I haven’t given a shit what I looked like, so the beard became scraggly anyway.” He shifted underneath me, the steel of his erection pressing into my hip. “Want me to grow it back?”
“Yes,” I hissed, embarrassing need dripping off the word.
Drew laughed and pulled me closer. “Maybe. Now ask me, Gorgeous.” A shiver rippled down my spine as he cupped my neck.
“Do you want to move in with us?”
He tapped his chin as if he was mulling it over. “I probably need a job. It’s a good thing I have an offer in the city already.”
“You what?” The sexy moment was over as my jaw dropped. “Where? How?”
“A company about two blocks away from Blystone. Pretty much the same salary as Ontech, too.” His arm looped around my waist to pull me back. “I told you to trust me, didn’t I? I had a plan, and it always included a life with you. The only regret I'd ever have would be losing you." He backed away and lifted my chin with the tap of his knuckle. "And that is not happening, Caldwell. Ever."
I grabbed his face, peppering kisses across his cheek before he covered my mouth with his. I exhaled against his lips—relief and happiness filtering through me.
“So, yes. I would love to move in with the both of you. It’s not sudden. It’s right. That’s what we are, Sara. Nothing we do could be wrong if we’re together. Numbers don’t matter, not in time or age. What we have is timeless.”
I crushed my lips to his, fisting the edges of his tie before I yanked it off and threw it behind me. My fingers dove for the buttons of his shirt as our kiss became hungry and sloppy. All the sadness and all the longing came rushing to the surface as we grabbed at each other’s clothes.
“Upstairs,” I murmured against his lips. I’d never even had a boy over for dinner, but I was about to have sex in my old bedroom. There was something disrespectful about that, but it wasn’t enough to make me hesitate. My last memory here would be a happy one, without one bit of guilt.
I rushed up the stairs, pulling Drew behind me. The door wasn’t all the way closed before his lips were back on mine.
“I missed you so fucking much.” Drew grabbed the hem of my T-shirt and peeled it over my head, muttering a “fuck” when he found me braless underneath.
“You’re trying to kill me,” he growled against my mouth. Heat flared in his hooded eyes as he hooked his thumbs into the waistband of my pajama pants and inched them down my legs.
“My Sara,” he breathed in between long, open-mouthed kisses along the inside of my thigh. My balance wavered as he ascended higher. My fingers dug into his shoulder as I tried not to fall over.
“I told you,” he rasped as he lifted his head, offering a sexy curl of his lips as he hooked my leg over his shoulder. “I’ve got you.”
