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I never knew a person could consume you like this. That you could want someone, love someone, with this much force and intensity.

She owns every part of me, and my life would be stripped of all color and purpose without her in it.

Pixie: Now my clothes will smell like you every time I wear them.

Pixie: Which means I’ll smell like you too.

The messages arrive before I even close the picture or tell her how obsessed I am with what she did today, and the moment I read them, my cock throbs painfully inside my pants.

I don’t understand how she always knows exactly how to provoke me. How she constantly finds something new to say or to do that lights me up instantly.

Then again, if I’m being honest, all it takes is thinking about her or catching sight of her, and the game is already over.

I’m fucking gone for her.

And insanely happy about it.

Zayn: Promise me those newly arranged clothes in my dressing room will stay there until you decide to replace them with new ones.

Zayn: Promise me everything that belongs to you will stay in that closet beside everything that belongs to me forever.

Zayn: Promise me you’ll stay in my life, in our home, and in my bed forever.

I’m not asking her for all this because of some impulsive moment. I mean every word sincerely.

She probably still doesn’t realize how much I’ve always liked her. She’s told me countless times that because she’s older than me, she never once considered the possibility that I could look at her that way.

She’s older than me by barely three years, for fuck’s sake.

Three years.

To me, that difference doesn’t even exist. When I look at her, I see the love of my life and nothing else.

I wait like some lovesick teenager to see what she’ll answer, only for a video to arrive instead.

I open it quickly, and the moment I hit Play, her gorgeous face appears on the screen, covered in tears.

My heart slams so hard inside my chest that it steals the air from my lungs.

“I think seeing the raw emotions your words cause me is better than a written answer, babe. I’m stupidly in love with you, and I thank God every single day for giving me the chance to have a relationship with you. You’re absolutely wonderful. You’re everything I’ve ever wanted for myself, and I promise I’ll always stay beside you, with you, only yours. I love you.”

Her confession comes with so many tears that, even though I know they’re caused by emotion and happiness, I still can’t stand seeing them.

I’m already on my feet before the video ends. I shut my laptop by simply dropping the lid and walk out of my office like there’s an emergency.

Because there is.

I need to get home to my woman immediately and make sure she doesn’t shed another tear.

“Zayn…” Beatrix calls after me, noticing me rushing past her desk.

“I’m leaving,” I tell her as I step into the elevator reserved only for me and my family. “Please postpone whatever else was on today’s schedule.”

The doors close just as Beatrix gives me a single nod of understanding.

Since I wasn’t supposed to leave the office for another four hours, my driver isn’t downstairs waiting for me. I don’t feel like taking one of the guys’ drivers home either, so I take one of the cars we keep in the underground garage here.

Ethan’s.