I want more.
“Nothing,” he says quickly, trying to move the pages, but my hand doesn’t move.
“No, no, no, Ty,” I say teasingly. “What is it?”
His eyes widen slightly as I start to look down, but instead of saying anything, he just watches me.
My eyes trace the paper and…it feels like my chest cracks open.
It’s me.Me.
The teasing smirk drops from my face as I look at the portrait in better detail. It’s beautiful. In the drawing, my hair is long and completely black like it was back then. My eyes are closed as I sleep, but it’s undeniable that I’m happy. Content. Peaceful. The way my eyes scrunched as I was sleeping. The way my lips were in a slight pout. The way my hair fell around my jaw.
Off to the side, there are another pair of my eyes, dark andseeingstaring back at me. Like he was trying to get them just right again and again.
The detail… The gold ring in the darkness around my eyes is visible. The flecks of dark brown within the mid-brown.
“Ty,” I whisper.
“I… I didn’t want to forget,” he says simply. Not offering any more information than that, but my eyes prick with tears anyway.He didn’t want to forget me.
“Wow,” I repeat, swallowing the sobs that are threatening to come through, so I cough softly. I trace the picture with my finger one last time and look at him. I look him in the eye and try to show him just how much this meant to me.
I thought I was forgotten, but here he was, drawing me over and over to make sure he didn’t forget any small detail of me.
“Thank you.” I don’t try to explain what I’m thanking him for, but I don’t think I have to. He knows.
Ty leans closer, and the air between us changes. It’s not teasing and light anymore. It’s thick and charged. It feels…inevitable in the best fucking way.
I mirror him, leaning in slowly, my eyes drifting from his to his lips.
“Roxie,” he breathes my name out like it’s the air he needs to survive or the thing that might bring him to his knees.
“Yes,” I answer and close the gap between us.
My lips press against his gently, sweetly. There’s that tension and heat between us, but the kiss… The kiss is gentle. One that feels like coming home, actually.
Ty’s hand moves to cradle my head, holding me like I’m something precious. His fingers slip softly through the hair at the nape of my neck to hold me in place against him. I slide my hand across the table, pushing the sketchbook aside and holding onto the fabric of his shirt.
Pulling back slightly, my eyes open quickly to make sure that was okay. But his lips chase mine and his eyes stay closed as he initiates the kiss this time.
I gladly give him the control, curious to see how he uses it.
Is Ty the kind of partner that wants total submission? That wouldn’t surprise me.
Would he talk me through it? I nearly fucking groan against his lips because Iknowhe’d talk me through it in that accented voice while moaning and hissing and making all the right noises.
Is he rough? Would he want me to match that right away? I don’t know if I’ll ever be able to handle that.
Ty’s tongue slips between my lips, deepening the kiss and its intensity. My breath catches, my heart hammers, my fingers feel shaky like Ihaveto touch him more to prove that he’s really here. With me. Again.
“Ty! Walk-in!” Asher’s voice cuts through the tension, deflating whatever lady boner I had with three words.
Asher’s hot, but definitely not for me.
But Ty is. He’smine.
Ty leans back barely back enough to let me breathe, his eyes dark and heavy like the absolute last thing he wants to do is go back to work, but we both know he needs to.
