“What are you saying, Cal?”
“I’m saying…” His thumb traces my lower lip, his gaze never wavering. “What if this doesn’t have to end tomorrow?”
“I have to go back. My flight?—”
“I know you have to leave.” His voice is gentle but insistent. “I’m not asking you to cancel your flight. I’m asking if we could try.”
The unspoken question hangs between us. I know what he’s asking without him having to spell it out, but part of me needs to hear him say it.
“What exactly are you suggesting?” I whisper, my heart pounding so hard I’m sure he can feel it.
His fingers slide into my hair, cradling the back of my head. “I’m suggesting that maybe we don’t have to say goodbye. Not permanently.”
I swallow hard. “Long distance is…complicated.”
“Most things worth having are,” he counters. “Look, I’m not saying it’ll be easy, but I’m willing to try if you are.”
Of course I’m willing to try. How could I not? I’m in love with the man.
This is terrifying. A leap without a net. Long distance is going to be a bitch. The timing sucks. Logistics will be a nightmare. But he’s here right now with his hand in my hair and hope in his voice, and I’d be an idiot to pretend that doesn’t mean everything.
Even with how uncertain this is, it might be the easiest yes I’ve ever said.
I smile. “I’m in.”
His brow lifts. “Aye?”
“Aye.”
He lets out a laugh that warms me from the inside out. “Thank god. I wouldnotbe okay if you went back to the States and started seeing someone else.”
“Oh. Well, that’s…a pretty intense way of telling me you have jealousy issues.”
His smirk is pure trouble. “Lass, I have exclusivity issues. Specifically, I need you to be exclusively mine.”
I don’t waste another second. I grab his face and crash my lips to his, pouring everything into the kiss. Every ounce of fear, longing, and hope I’ve been too afraid to put into words. I need him to feel it. “Say it again,” I murmur against his lips.
“You heard me just fine, love.”
“Then say it again,” I whisper.
He leans in, his lips brushing my ear. “You’re mine,” he says, drawing each word out like he’s savoring the taste of it. “Want me to write it down? Maybe get it notarized?”
I laugh, pressing my forehead to his. “That’s actually a good idea. You should definitely do that.”
He grins. “Then let’s make it official, over and over again. Now get the fuck over here and get on top of me.”
A slow smirk tugs at my lips as warmth spreads through me, anticipation curling low in my stomach. “Yes, sir,” I purr, already moving. Alreadyhis.
nineteen
BREE
Ican’t believe it’s time for me to leave. Thissucks.
If I’m being brutally honest, I think I started falling for him the moment we met, which was almost a year ago now. I was still knee-deep in my mess with Dillon back then, clinging to a relationship I knew was broken. Pouring myself into fixing what was never meant to be whole again. And now, here I am, standing on the edge of something that could actually be mine if I let it.
Walking away will be like leaving a piece of me behind that I’ll never get back.
