“You’re the only one here I care about spending this night with,” I tell her, knowing the statement could not be truer. “What do you say? I’m rather looking forward to seeing if you meant what you said outside... Anything I want, yeah?”
“Anything.” She nods, eyes darkening in desire.
“That’s my girl.” My lips touch hers again, anticipation rocking through me.
“Tell me this is real,” she murmurs against my mouth.
“What is real?” I pull back to meet her eyes.
“This. Me and you. I feel like I’m living in a dream, and one day, someone is going to wake me up, and this will all be over.”
“It’s real,” I assure her. “Though I sometimes find myself fearing the same thing. Because I’m afraid I don’t deserve you, and one day you’re going to realize it too.”
“I’m not going anywhere.”
“You promise?”
“On everything that I am.”
Her words bring another smile to my lips.
“I’m not going anywhere either.”
“You promise?”
“On every star in the fucking sky. With my very life.” I kiss her again. “You’re mine, Mais.”
“Yours,” she agrees.
“Now let’s get the hell out of here. If I have to spend another second not buried inside of you, I might die.”
“By all means, Mr. Stewart.” She steps back. “Lead the way.”
“On a scale of one to ten, how would you rate this birthday?” Maisie asks, her breath warm against my chest as she speaks.
“A million.” I tighten my arm around her.
“A million wasn’t on the scale.”
“Still a million.” I kiss the top of her head. “No one has ever done for me what you did tonight, Mais. It means so much, truly. But you being here with me means an immense amount more.”
“Just try to get rid of me.” She snuggles closer.
“Get rid of you?” I snort. “I’d be more worried about me chaining myself to you so that you can never escape me.”
“And you think I would object?” She props her chin on my chest, looking up at me.
“I can think of a time when being near me was the last thing you wanted.”
“I could say the same to you.”
“I’ve never not wanted to be near you, Maisie. I just let my fear and uncertainty get the better of me,” I admit. “Even months after I ended things with you, I still thought about you endlessly. I tried to reason with myself, convincemyself that it was just good sex. But I think deep down I knew all along.”
“Knew what?” Those beautiful blue eyes meet mine.
“That you were someone I wasn’t capable of letting go. Trust me, I tried. Even took to lying to myself to make it easier.”
“If it makes you feel any better, I did something similar. Only, instead of trying to convince myself you didn’t matter, I harnessed my hurt and anger and let it manifest into hatred. It was easier to hate you than to admit the truth.”
