“My left, ah,nut, as you so delicately put it. Do you meanmyleft, or your left?”
“Does it matter?” Andy raised an eyebrow.
“Well, it might factor into the calculation,” I said. “What if I’m fonder of one than the other?”
“Areyou?” Andy asked, scandalized.
“Not as such, but I might be,” I said. “It would depend on whatthatwas defined as, as well. Would I give it for sex? No. Would I give it to satisfy you? Well. Very possibly.”
“Really?” Andy asked, scandal turning to surprise.
“Should I be insul—”
Andy surged up to kiss me, putting an end to the discussion as we both laughed our way through it, breaking away breathless again.
“Did we decide which one the left was?” I teased, grinning as Andy rolled his eyes and flopped down beside me again.
“Sorry I asked,” he said, although he didn’t quite manage tosoundsorry.
Those three little dangerous words welled up in my throat again, tempting the tip of my tongue.
Not now. Not while it might sound hollow, or like it was the wine or the sex or the general Christmas spirit talking.
We had plenty of time. It wasn’t as though the feeling was going anywhere.
“I was very glad of your company today,” I said instead.
“Me too,” Andy mumbled sleepily. “London’s kinda great.”
“Really?” I asked, excited that perhaps Andy felt the same spark of affection for my home as I did for his.
“Well, you’re in it,” he said, and the excitement turned to something warm, tender, and precious. “So obviously.”
“I could say the same about you,” I murmured. “Any place would be much nicer with you in it. Christmas almost seems survivable.”
“We’ll survive,” Andy said, curling his fingers around mine again. “We’ve got each other.”
“Do we?” I asked.
“Yeah,” Andy said, blinking up at me, face soft and sleepy and still angelically beautiful. “Yeah, we do.”
* * *
When I woke,Andy was still lying half on top of me, and I ached deliciously in all the right places. Last night had been real.
Andy and I were real.
I wasn’t sure how to deal with happiness like this. It was too much to contain, and I felt as though it must have been shining so brightly as to be visible from space.
This was the happiest I’d ever been. I kept having that thought, but every time I did it was replaced in short order by an even happier moment.
But surelythishad to be the peak of it. This peaceful waking up beside Andy, who I’d admired from afar for so long and who’d turned out to be even more wonderful than I could have imagined.
He stirred beside me, and my heart felt full enough to burst.
“It really is infinitely pleasurable waking up beside you,” I murmured, reaching out to stroke my fingers along the back of Andy’s hand as he blinked awake.
He was so wonderfully soft in the mornings, and in the light pouring in from the window, his skin glowed like burnished gold, warm and alive and perfect under my fingertips.
