I put my hands on his shoulders and shook him, calling his name and almost screamed when he opened his eyes and gave me a huge smile.
“Hey,” he said.
“Oh my god, I nearly shit myself,” I gasped. “I thought you were dead.”
“Nope and I’ll prove it to you.”
In a flash he had my back to the sofa and him on top of me, holding my hands above my head as he looked down at me with lust in his eyes.
“What are you doing?” I giggled. “You’re supposed to be ill.”
“Not any longer I’m not, so it’s about time I told you what’s what.”
“What do you mean?” My chest heaved as my body recognised his, causing my blood to heat up.
“I’m sick of waiting when we both know what we have.”
My mouth parted and Sam’s tongue darted out to lick his lips. He looked as though he might devour me, but then he shook his head and grinned instead.
“I want you more than I’ve ever wanted anyone,” he whispered against my ear. “Not just because you’re the mother of my son, but because of who you are and how you make me feel. You’re beautiful and sexy, you’re kind and strong, things that I’ve told you before, but every single word is true.”
“Sam-.”
“Nope,” he said, interrupting me with a deep, sexy growl. “I’m talking and unless you want me to slap that fucking amazing arse of yours, you’ll listen to what I’ve got to say.”
Shit, I was done over thinking things, I was going to listen and agree to anything that he said, because if the erection pushing against my stomach was anything to go by, he was going to suggest plenty of things that I’d be totally on board with.
“We are doing this,” he continued. “We are being a couple and we are telling our son today when he gets home. It’s too soon for me to move in here permanently, but when we get to that point, which we will, I’ll sell my apartment and we’ll buy somewhere for us as a family, not somewhere that you lived with that fucking prick.”
He paused long enough for me to nod my head. He then kissed the end of my nose before continuing.
“I know what I did to you was fucking hideous and hurtful and I will never, ever forget that or forgive myself but I will always, and I mean always, fucking love you with all my heart. You and Frankie are such a great gift, Maisie, and I am so damn grateful for you both that I will not fuck this up. I know you think if I have to try then it’s not working, but I will never stop trying to be better for you than I was the day before because you, my beautiful girl, deserve the fucking world.”
I was speechless and breathless as I tried to take in Sam’s words and all my head kept coming back to was that he’d said he loved me with all his heart.
“You love me?” I whispered, almost choking on the emotion that one four lettered word could evoke. “You said you loved me with all your heart.”
Sam nodded and rested his forehead against mine. “I do,” he whispered. “I’m so fucking in love with you my chest aches when I get into that bed and know I’m not going to see you for six or seven hours. Everything about you makes me crave you, Maisie. I need you to be mine. I want you to be mine. I want us, I want our family.”
The euphoria I felt was so intense I felt my whole body shaking and entwined my fingers with Sam’s that were still holding my hands above my head.
“I get it if you don’t feel the same,” he continued. “But just give us a chance, please.”
I was bowled over by the way the confident, cocky man on top of me had laid himself bare. He had given me everything that was in his head and in his heart, having no clue whether I felt the same way. He’d given me his vulnerability and trusted me with it, so how the hell could I not love him back.
“I love you too,” I replied, ending the sentence with a soft kiss to his cheek.
His eyes stared down at me questioningly as his fingers tightened around mine.
“You do?”
I nodded. “I trust you with my heart, Sam, mine and Frankie’s, so yes, of course I love you. I’m so in love with you it makes my chest ache too and I get excited when I know I’m going to see you in a few hours.”
He chuckled and dropped a kiss to my neck, stirring other more primitive emotions in me.
“I was scared when you got hurt.” I exhaled, as I recalled Amy’s phone call and the long night of worry. “I hated to think you might be taken away from us before we’d even got started, and that wasn’t just for Frankie, it was for me too. I want everything that you want and I need everything that you need and it has to be with you, because without you it would be meaningless.”
Sam’s lips met mine in the softest of kisses, but the way his body hardened against me and his grip on my hands tightened, I knew it wouldn’t stay like that for long and soon our clothes were quickly discarded. Foreplay was hot, fast and heady – hungry kisses, grabbing hands, and bites of passion until finally Sam sank himself inside of me, filling me. With each thrust came a declaration of love and I knew we were going to fine, we were going to be the love story we should have been all along.
