Sothat’swhat this was.
This was what it was to love someone.
It was home.
No one had warned her.
But it turned out she hadn’t needed the warning.
She’d known it all along.
Sixteen
When they bothcaught their breath, Theo turned over, grabbed his phone, and immediately ordered a pizza.
“Pizza? Really?” Audrey asked when he locked the screen. “You said we were making pasta!”
He huffed a laugh. “Yeah, sure, but I’m too hungry now—this will be faster than making dinner from scratch. We missed the window on that. It takes a while.”
“You tease!” she cried, shoving his shoulder. “Did you only promise me homemade gnocchi to seduce me? Was it all a lie?” He wasn’t wrong, it waswaylater than she thought, and her stomach had started to growl.
“Did it work?” Theo asked, raising a wry eyebrow. “Because if so…”
She smacked him in the face with a pillow.
And then he made her thoroughly regret it.
She was still laughing and kicking from the ensuing pillow fight when he rolled her up like a burrito in the duvet and carried her over his shoulder downstairs.
“What are you doing?!” she squeaked, still squirming, but not hard enough to throw him off balance. “I’m still naked!”
“Oh, I know,” Theo purred with relish. “That’s the best part.”He smacked her ass fondly through the padding. “It’s a requirement for building naked pillow forts. It’s even in the name.” He deposited her gently on the floor before ripping all the couch cushions off and tossing them on top of her in a pile.
“What about the poor pizza delivery guy?” she asked with a gasp while she tried to claw her way out of her duvet wrapping. It had been entirely too easy for him to trap her there.
“I’ll put pants on for him. I’m not an animal.” He flopped down on the cushions and took her chin between his fingers. Only her face was visible in the fluffy white folds of his comforter. “But you? You’re going to stay just like this for as long as possible.”
He pressed a kiss to her lips, one of a thousand he’d given her already—and still, it wasn’t enough.
It would never be enough.
Not from him.
He could give her a thousand more, a million, and she’d cherish every one of them.
After Theo retrieved his sweatpants and handed her his hoodie, they spent the next hour perfecting their fort, nestling together in its warmth in front of the fire until the doorbell rang and they were finally able to gorge themselves on a hot, greasy picnic.
Now Audrey knew how heavenly postcoital pizza could taste.
When they were fully sated and the grease had been licked—and then washed—away from their fingers, Theo burrowed into the cushions and held his arm out, motioning for her to tuck in against his side. They sat there and watched the fire in silence for a long time, simply basking in the intimate glow of each other.
It was everything she’d ever wanted.
Everything she’d ever dreamed of.
But there was still a pall over the evening they needed to acknowledge.
“I think we should talk about what happened.”
