“You’re this famous author guy! You hit thirty-four on the bestseller chart. I take hot yoga classes on Mondays even though I don’t really know much about yoga.”
“Seemed pretty flexible to me,” I grinned at him. “Flexibility would be important. If we were gonna make this work.”
“I’d bend over backward for you,” Kieran said, smiling softly. “And I could, too, my core strength is really improving.”
A snort of laughter escaped me, happiness filling my chest and pushing everything else out. No uncertainty, no worries about the future, no fear.
Just happiness and love and excitement.
“And I don’t care what you do with this book, okay?” he added, which wasexactlywhat I needed to hear right now. “I wantyouto be happy. If that means rewriting it, fine. Like I said before, I don’t regret any of this.”
Tears stung at my eyesagain,but Kieran wiped them away with his knuckle this time.
“I just want you,” he said. “And I want you happy. Whatever that takes.”
I sniffed, blinking away the last of the tears, and met Kieran’s steady green gaze.
No,emerald. I was allowed to think in clichés every now and again.
“You make me happy,” I said. “More than you could ever know.”
Kieran smiled a broad, warm smile that pushed the last of the heartbreak away like sunlight chasing shadows.
The book was a big deal. It was ahugedeal, and I’d have to figure out what I was going to do about it.
But if I had Kieran in my life, I knew I could handle it. I could handleanythingwith him by my side.
“So is this our happy ending?” I asked, laughing again as Kieran leaned in to rub our noses together.
“More of a happy middle,” Kieran said. “I’m learning things about books, and thisdefinitelydoesn’t feel like the end to me.”
“You know you’ve just volunteered yourself for a lifetime of beta reading, right?”
“Oh no.” Kieran grinned at me. “What a disaster.”
* * *
I burstinto laughter as my back hit the mattress, excited for whatever Kieran wanted to do to me—or whatever he wanted me to do tohim.
We’d barely scratched the surface of all the fun we could have.
“Missed this,” I sighed as Kieran tugged my t-shirt up.
“It’s been three days,” he pointed out.
I shrugged. “Missed it anyway. You’resostuck with me now.”
“Good,” Kieran purred, pressing a kiss just below my navel.
I wriggled under him as he pushed the shirt up higher, helping me pull it off once it caught under my arms.
Kieran wasn’t in any hurry, whatever he had in mind, and I wasn’t inclined to hurry him up. Ihadmissed him, and I wanted all the touch and contact and soft happy sighs I could get right now.
He kissed his way up my chest again, pausing at my lips and then kissing there, too, soft and light, a smile lighting up his face the entire time.
“Did I ever tell you I think you’re beautiful?” Kieran asked, raising his eyes to meet mine.
I nodded, remembering how it’d sounded in his voice and how surprised I’d been. Between the two of us, Kieran was this perfect beautiful boy and I was… acceptable.
