“I think you’re mixing your rom-coms,” she said.
“Nah, I’m not. We watched a lot of movies on that pink settee. I just... I want you to take your time. Don’t burn your bridges with Ted before you think it through. Can you finish doing this when you’re done with your knees?” He gestured toward the jars of peanuts and the box of baggies.
“I’m on it,” she said. “But—”
“Grab us each three bottles of water and put it in that pile, too. I’mma find some kind of pack.” He headed toward the living room.
“I saw a small one, like a day pack, in the utility room,” she called after him. “Although I still don’t know how we’re going to leave here with an armed battalion outside of the hatch.”
“I doubt it’s a full battalion,” he called back as he went to look and—there it was. A dark blue day pack hanging on a hook near the orange raincoat. He grabbed it and headed back toward the kitchen. “And we’re not necessarily going to leave, we’re just ready if we need to.”
“So, we’re rushing around to then... sit around and wait?”
Thomas set the pack on the counter where he’d left the jars of peanuts. “You just described the majority of most military operations,” he told her.
“For the record,” she said, making one last adjustment to the bandages on her knees before slipping down off the stool, “I’m ready to burn bridges whenever you are.”
The world stuttered, and it might even have stopped as he turned and looked into her eyes.
“I love you,” she said with a matter-of-factness that belied the softness and vulnerability he could see in her eyes as she shared her soul with him. “I’ve always loved theideaof you, but the real you... You take my breath away. I want you back in my life. And I know it’s only been a few days that we’ve been together again, but... God, I wantus. In every possible way. And maybe that’s crazy, and if you still want to wait or take it slowly, I will absolutely wait and take it as slowly as you need, but... I just want you to know that once we’re done with this prep that we’re doing,I’mmore than ready to burn it all down.”
Chapter Twenty-Four
Tasha flashed hot and cold in that endless millennium that she stood there, gazing into Thomas’s gorgeous brown eyes after essentially propositioning him.
She moved over to the counter, and began her assigned task of transferring peanuts from jars to baggies. And, because his silence was killing her, she spoke before he did. “I’m sorry if I’m pushing too hard. I heard what you said about needing time, and I respect that, I really do. I just had to respond to yourdon’t burn bridgescomment so you didn’t think my silence was agreement, but I promise that’s the last time I’ll talk about this. I mean, unless you’re the one who wants to discuss—”
She didn’t see or hear him move, but suddenly he was right beside her, turning her to face him and—
Slamming her into a full body embrace as he kissed her.
Hard.
His mouth against hers, his arms tightly around her—but not too tight against her injured arm, because he was always,alwaysthinking, considering, planning, strategizing.
Protecting.
As Tasha kissed him back, she poured her heart and soul into the breathtaking intimacy of this moment, hoping that he might feel as safe in her arms.
But then, reluctantly, because she wanted to keep on kissing him like this forever, but right now they had things to do, she shifted slightly away from him, and he released her, just a little. Just enough to look down into her eyes.
“You’re really that certain?” he whispered.
“I am.”
He shook his head. “Part of me loves that. But it also scares me a little,” he admitted.
“I’m so absolutely certain, I’d marry you right here and now,” she told him, swiftly adding, “Oh, shit, that sounds so much crazier out loud than it did in my head. It was meant to reassure you, not check off theYes, you should be scared of mebox. For the record, I’m not asking you to marry me or even suggesting that—”
“Thanks, but I know you’re crazy and I’m good with it—andthatcame out wrong, too.” He winced as he smiled at her. “God, we’re champions. What Imeantwas, yes, I know that you’re not afraid to say what you feel and sometimes it comes out extra-unfiltered and crazy-ish-sounding, and I’m good withthat. I don’t want you to change anything about yourself for me. Not ever, Tash.”
She hugged him tighter, her head tucked in against his chest, desperately wanting to kiss him again, but not wanting to stop him from telling her things that made her heart leap and thrill.
Her cardiac gymnastics weren’t just because she was surprised by his version of the modern-Darcy-ism ofI like you and your crazy-pants just as you are,but from knowing that he cared enough to try to explain how he was feeling.
And sure enough, Thomas kept going. “What I really should’ve said was,I’m scaringme, a little. I’m scared about what I could feel for you, if I let myself—and wow, that’s some serious denial right there.Let myself?Couldfeel?Like I wasn’t in free fall the dead-second you made me do the not-my-sister-not-a-child math.”
She looked up at him, at that, because now her heart was slamming in her chest. Was he saying...?
