I feel his heavy breaths under my back and bring my hands up over my head to touch his face. “Amazing work,honey.” I throw the nickname back to him as I pat his cheek.
“Who said I was done?” he asks mockingly, lifting his hips and reminding me that he’s stillvery muchinside me and growing harder by the second. “I’ve been waiting for this…honey.”
CHAPTER 31
Wewentfortwomore rounds before I demanded a shower and some rest. Bo gave in, under the condition that I’d sleep naked and on top of him. It was without a doubt the best sleep of my life. When we woke up this morning, the room was still dark as rain poured outside.
But I’ve never felt brighter.
Bo stirs next to me, his nose tucked against his pillow as he blinks awake, then lets his eyes flutter closed again. I watch him sleep shamelessly, noticing the delicate twitch of his eyebrows, the startled and settled breaths in between, the rising and falling of his chest. I memorise every detail of his face. His cupid’s bow tucked under a soft spray of golden facial hair, the twenty-one freckles across his forehead, cheeks, and nose. The small few on his eyelids that are my favourites.
Then, once I’ve had my fill, I sit up next to him, my back against the headboard and my blanket wrapped around my torso. I wake him with a gentle brush of my hand across his beard. He cracks one eye open, his smile sleepily searching as he looks up to find me.
“Good morning, gorgeous,” he whispers, his voice rough. He wraps one arm around my lap, holding my hip, then pulls himself over me, his head landing across my thighs. “Five more minutes,” he yawns, curling into my legs.
I’m not sure if it’s the proximity of his voice to my belly or the way my heart started beating that got the baby’s attention, but they’re awake now too. Greeting me with fluttering little kicks on my left side. I place one hand where the baby seems to be and one hand on the side of Bo’s head, using my little fingers to stroke his hair.
And I think to myself: life hasneverbeen so good as it is at this exact moment. The only thing left to do is tell him how much I love him… and I’m unprepared to wait five more minutes.
“Bo?” I say his name like I haven’t ever said it before. Like it’s foreign on my tongue with all of these new feelings and depth that it holds. “Bo… I need to tell you something.”
“You have to wait,” he says, grumbling, talking out the side of his mouth squished against my lap. “I want to say it first, but I’m too tired to do it properly right now. Later.”
I smile so wide that it tilts my head back, pointing my face up to the ceiling. “Saywhatfirst?” I ask, brushing his hair back and trailing my thumb from the top of his ear down his neck.
“Three big, important words. You know them, yes?”
“No, sorry, I’m unfamiliar. You better wake up and tell me.”
“You deserve better than a bedroom confession. There should be spectacle,” he says, smiling to himself, his eyes still shut tight. “Pizzaz,” he adds, sighing.
“I don’tneedspectacle.” I just needyou.
Bo groans as he sits up, his head hanging between us until he rolls his neck and gives me that classic mischievous schoolboy grin that kills me every time.
“Morning,” he says, pulling his blanket farther up his lap to cover his bottom half.
“Oh, good morning,” I whisper, leaning forward to capture his lips in a single lazy kiss. “Something wake you?”
“Hmm,” he moans, rubbing his eye with the heel of his palm. “I didn’t think I’d feel hungover. I felt sober when I got to bed.”
“Ah, but love, you’re thirty now.”
He tilts his head slowly, his hair flopping to one side. “I like that,” he says, smiling.
“What?”
“My dream girl is in bed with me, calling melove.”
“Dream girl, huh?” I say, pulling the blanket farther up my chest when I notice his eyes dip lower. I need him to focus.
“How are you so awake?” he asks, widening his eyes and blinking slowly. “I feel like I swallowed rocks.”
“I’mactuallysober, remember? The whole babything?” I tease, rubbing my hand from his shoulder to his neck, tilting his drooping head back up to look at me. “Wake up.” Ineedhim to tell me how he feels. Because I truly feel like I’m about to burst. “If you’re not going to say it first, I will.”
He chuckles, letting his head fall between us again. “You know, you’ve got a really interesting way of keeping me on my toes. I’ve been fighting every impulse around you becauseyousaid we had to be nothing more than friends. Then, after one night together, you want all the cards on the table. Do you know how hard it’s been to not tell you every day? Maybe I should makeyouwait,” he says, narrowing his eyes at me playfully.
He’s got a point. I’ve led the way this entire time. My boundaries and my rules. He’s kindly and respectfully followed me every step of the way. That’s probably one of the many reasons I’m so in love with him. And Icouldlet him torture me a little—since I’ve been unknowingly keeping him on ice all this time.
