I pull back just far enough to see his face. “What?”
“It was for you.” His eyes sparkle with amusement and affection. “I do know you, Amesie. I knew you were scared, and I understood why. So I invented a date, hoping you’d rush over here and interrupt it. And I generally suck at big, romantic gestures, but I wanted to try. For you. So I went and bought out the entire stock of flameless candles at the Home Store n’ More?—”
“Oh mygod.” My brain struggles to catch up. “The candles, the roses on the bed, that was all?—”
“For you,” Robbie confirms. “Of course it was. I love you. Pretty sure you heard me yelling that at Mike earlier. And I wanted you to—” His brow furrows. “Wait, how’d you know about the rose petals on the bed?” He darts a glance down the hall.
Fresh heat floods my face. “I, um… I may have rushed over here in a panic earlier, exactly as you predicted, to save you from Rocco’s evil clutches.”
“Rocco?” His gaze darts back and forth between my eyes. “Your chef? Why would you?—?”
“You mentioned his abs!” I remind him. “Ah, shit. I wasreallymean to him today. I’m not gonna get a decent boule out of him for a week.”
Robbie’s laughing again, that beautiful sound, and he cups my face in both hands, running his thumbs over my cheekbones. “I love you, Ames.”
Everything inside me goes still. My eyes sting with tears, and I don’t even bother trying to hide it. Not from Robbie.
“Say it again,” I demand softly.
“I love you. You, Ames Axford. I am thoroughly, completely, head over heels in love with you. I love every curl. Every freckle. Every shade of blue in your eyes… including the navy one I still think would look great in my kitchen.”
A wet, shaky laugh burbles out of me. I’m pretty sure I’ve never made that noise in my life.
“I love how your mind works,” he whispers. “I love your temper and your drama. I love how you kiss. I love how fiercely you love. You’re it for me. I amall in.”
His eyes are so serious as they stare into mine, and I know what he’s trying to tell me… and what he needs to hear.
“I believe you, baby. I trust you. And I love you.”
Robbie kisses me then, and I kiss him back with everything that I have. His hands slide into my hair, angling my head, and I press as close as I can despite my stupid sling, needing to feel his warmth against me.
When we finally break apart, he rests his forehead against mine. We’re both breathing hard, and it feels like another point of connection. His breath flowing into me and mine into him.
“So… fuck. Now what?” I ask finally, a little dazed. “I’ve spent sixteen years yearning for exactly this, and now I have it.”
Robbie grins, and it makes my heart trip over itself, as it always has… and always will. “Now…” He takes my good hand and leads me over to the couch. Then he falls backward onto the cushions and gently pulls me down with him, careful of my arm, arranging me on top of him. “Now we revel in it, baby.” He pushes my hair off my forehead, and his fingers linger there. “Now I get to keep you.”
“Keep me.” I settle more comfortably against him, my chin on his chest. “Like I’m a prize.”
“Yep. No give-backsies allowed.”
I press my smile against his shirt. “Does that mean I’m staying… here?” It’s hard not to sound hopeful.
“I mean, youdidmake the wreath on the door. And your skeletondoesfit in the front yard…”
“And I already know where the spices are in the kitchen. And my favorite flowers are in the yard…”
“And, now that I think about it, you were the one who bought the sheets on my bed.” His thumb tracks over my bottom lip. “So I think that sort of means you’re obligated to sleep on them. Every night. Forever.”
Happiness bubbles up inside me so bright and overwhelming, it’s hard to breathe through it. I lean down and kiss him—his jaw, his mouth, his chest, everywhere I can reach. He holds my head in both his hands and presses soft kisses to my hair and forehead.
I’ve been kissed a million times before, sometimes passionately and sometimes not. But this is a different kind of passion. The kind that doesn’t only promise orgasms. The kind that promises a whole fucking future—one where we’ll belong to each other. One where we’ll have time.
“I guess I could stay here,” I say sometime later. “But you’re gonna have to help me find a tenant for my place.”
Robbie laughs. “Since it sounds like Rocco will be quitting, maybe your new chef would wanna live on-site?”
I lift my head to glare at him, but the way his hands are sliding up my back under my shirt sort of ruins the effect. “You’re a pain in the ass,” I mutter.
