I shivered, tilting my head up so he could get a better angle for more skin. "True."
Sacha dragged his hot tongue over the shell of my ear. "Gaby?"
"Yes?"
His hand slowly stroked down my arm. "We only have a week left," he said in a soft voice, reminding me that our time together was coming to an end.
I moved my head to kiss his jaw, ignoring the anxiety it caused in my stomach. "I know."
"What are we going to do?"
Clear gray eyes met mine, something like worry or sadness filled in the edges of his lashes. I'd been meaning to ask him about it, but I was a chicken. In that moment, I regretted that I hadn't brought it up earlier.
"Make it work?" I offered him.
He threw his head back and laughed. "No shit." Fingers wrapped around my wrist, pulling my hand to his chest. "This has to work."
"Oh yeah?"
Sacha nodded, still smiling. "Yeah, Princess. It does."
I kissed his cheek, slinking one leg between his. "I know." I kissed his cheek again. "Who else is going keep you entertained if you don't have me?"
After a brief pause with no answer, we looked at each other and laughed.
"Julian?"
He kissed my nose while his chest vibrated with a rough chuckle. "I love you."
The admission crushed my heart, flattening it out and ruining it for the rest of my existence. "I know."
"You do?" he asked me softly.
"Yep." I pulled away from him to get a better glimpse at the smooth texture of the skin on his face and the long, dark lashes that framed his colored eyes. It wasn’t necessary to think of all the things he did and had done to let me know he cared about me, mainly because for the first time in my life, I felt his affection. His attention. I felt Sacha in a way that had no explanation or reason. I knew love in its many forms. I knew how I loved Eli in a way that made perfect sense because we’d been stuck together for so long. I knew how I loved the other two baboons, but this… was nothing like that. It was undeniable, bright and massive.
It was a rainbow, a unicorn, a million-dollar lottery ticket and happiness incarnate all rolled into one thing.
"I love you. So much."
His smile was the size of Jupiter and brighter than the sun. "I—," he stuttered, flushing. "I—"
"You can get it out," I teased him.
Sacha smirked. "How much?"
"How much what?"
I rolled my eyes. "I just said ‘so much.’ A lot. Too much." I hummed in my throat. "Why?"
"Because if you don't love me very much, I have a lot more work to do until you do," he stated.
That was suspicious. "Why?"
"Because I don't think I'm going to like being away from you when the tour is over." He tugged on my earlobe, wrapping his arm around my waist to hoist me on top of him. He was hard already, pressing against the thin material of his boxer briefs.
"I don't think I'm going to either," I admitted to him, trying not to rock over his thick erection but failing miserably. "You don't have to tour again for at least a few months after this, right?"
He nodded against me. His fingers slipped underneath the hem of my shirt. "No. We're just writing until we're ready for the next album. This is the last tour for the cycle."
