Three formal gowns. But it’s the last one that I’ve been waiting for her to discover.
She pulls it out, the emerald silk shimmering under the room’s lighting. Her sharp intake of breath is audible.
The dress is floor-length, with a modest neckline that dips just low enough to hint at curves, the waist tailored to accentuate her frame, the color a perfect match for her eyes.
“Oh,” she breathes. “Oh, it’s...”
She turns to look at me, the dress still held in her hands, and the expression on her face hits me like a blow to the chest. Open. Unguarded. Joyful in a way I’ve never seen anyone look before.
“Caleb,” she says. “I don’t understand. Why are you doing all of this?”
I take a step toward her, unable to maintain the distance any longer. Then another. Until I’m close enough to touch her, though I don’t. Not yet.
“Because you’re mine,” I say, the words rough with an emotion I’ve never let myself feel before, let alone express. “Because I want to give you everything you’ve never had. Because?—“
I stop, the words sticking in my throat. Then I force them out, because she deserves to hear them. Because they’re true.
“Because I know it’s fast, but I’m falling in love with you.”
Her eyes widen, the dress momentarily forgotten. For a heartbeat that stretches into eternity, she just stares at me, and I brace myself for rejection. For her to tell me it’s too soon, too much, too intense.
Instead, she carefully lays the dress across her bed, smoothing the silk with gentle hands. Then she turns back to me, closing the distance between us.
“I’m falling in love with you too,” she says, her voice steady despite the tears brightening her eyes. “I know it doesn’t make sense. I know it’s fast. But it’s true.”
Something breaks open in my chest at her words. My hands move of their own accord, cupping her face. I search her eyes for doubt or hesitation, finding none. Just clear green honesty looking back at me.
“Say it again,” I demand.
A small smile curves her lips. “I’m falling in love with you, Caleb Asher.”
I kiss her then because I have to. Her lips are soft beneath mine, yielding and eager all at once. Her hands come up to grip my shirt, holding on like I’m the only solid thing in a spinning world.
This kiss is different from the ones before. Slower. Deeper. More deliberate.
When we finally break apart, we’re both breathing hard. I rest my forehead against hers.
“I’ve never said that to anyone before,” I admit. “Never felt it.”
Her hands tighten in my shirt. “Never?”
“Never.”
She pulls back just enough to meet my eyes. “I’ve never said it either. Not to anyone but Bea.”
I kiss her again, slower this time, pouring everything I can’t say into it. Then I pull back, reaching past her to the emerald dress still laid out on the bed.
“Try it on,” I say.
Her eyes widen slightly, but she nods, taking the dress from my hands. “Now?”
“Now.”
She turns away, a hint of pink coloring her cheeks. It’s absurd, this sudden shyness, given everything we’ve done together. I’ve had every inch of her body beneath my hands, my mouth. Yet this makes her blush.
“Here,” I tell her, my voice dropping lower. “Let me watch you.”
The pink deepens, but she nods, her hands going to the buttons of her dress with only a slight tremor. I watch as she undoes them one by one, revealing inches of skin I already know by heart but somehow never tire of seeing. The dress slips from her shoulders, falling to the floor.
