AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Letting go of her hand, I cup her cheek. Hold her face. “I promised myself I’d wait until the new year. Until we’d finished working together. But I just can’t wait any longer. I can’t hold this in. I am out of my mind in love with you. I love you so much,” I say, and her eyes sparkle, more blue, more bright than I’ve ever seen. Now that I’ve started, I can’t stop. “I love you madly. I’m so in love with you, all these feelings drive me wild every single day. I couldn’t wait a second longer to tell you that you are the love of my life.”
A shudder seems to slide down her body.
Her lush red lips part slowly, full of wonder, like she can’t believe what I’ve said. She’s the one shell-shocked now, and I wish I had a camera to capture this moment, but I also know I will never forget it for my whole life.
“You don’t have to say anything,” I continue since I didn’t tell her to hear it in return. “You don’t have to say it back. I just couldn’t take another breath on this earth without telling you how I feel. I don’t want you to feel like you have to be impulsive. I just?—”
She covers my mouth with hers and shuts me up with a kiss that makes my heart soar. That melts me. I feel this kiss deep in the center of my soul. It’s a kiss that says, I love you too. I can feel it in the way her lips coast over mine, in the way her fingers play with the back of my hair. When she breaks the kiss, her gaze is vulnerable, full of the same raw hope I feel. “I’m so in love with you.”
I breathe the biggest sigh of relief in the world. And joy too. Unmitigated joy. “Thank god,” I say with a little bit of a laugh.
“I love you. I love you so much,” she repeats, then laughs too. “It’s so good to say it. To feel it.”
“Yeah?” I can’t quite believe it. It’s almost too good.
“Yes, I love you so much. You’re the most romantic person I’ve ever known, and it’s all real. You’re romantic because you listen to me and you care and you love and you give and you protect and you make me feel incredible.” She grabs the collar of the shirt I’m wearing, as she fiercely says, “I’m not letting you go.”
I press my forehead to hers, feeling calm, feeling peace. And seeing the true future. Not the one that I’d thought was lined with financial security. But the one that offers the possibility of soul-deep love.
I breathe in her perfume.
Slowly, she pulls back, meets my gaze. “How do we do this?” She sounds hopeful but nervous too.
There’s so much to figure out. Our marriage. Special Edition. The girls. The house. The details are a little overwhelming. But if there’s one thing I know about my woman, it’s that every now and then, she likes it when I take control.
“We’ll figure it out after my trip with Eliza. Just know that we’re in this together, and we’ll work it out like we’ve worked out everything. Let’s just have fun tonight. Let’s enjoy our date,” I say, then nod to the restaurant entrance.
She smiles. “You’re recreating our first date.”
“I am.”
We go inside and after we order, she asks with some concern, “You really didn’t get the place? And you’re not upset?”
I shake my head, take her hands in mine, and say, “I have everything I want right here.”
A smile. A pause. A moment I want to cherish.
Then her words: “Me too.”
When dinner ends, we head to the hotel where I booked the same room we had the night our first date was cut short. Once I open the door, Elodie acts coy and playful, tapping her chin. “Where did we ever leave off? If memory serves, I was unzipping your jeans,” she says, then her hands play with the ridge of my erection.
I shake my head. “If memory serves, you were sitting on my face.”
“No, you finished me.”
“I’ll finish you again.” I toss her over my shoulder and take her to the bed.
This time I undress my wife all the way.
This time when I lay her down on the white duvet, naked and resplendent, I place my hand on her neck, curling it over the creamy skin of her delicate throat, feeling her pulse beat beneath my palm.
For me. With me.
Her eyes are wide, flickering with excitement, passion.
Her gaze follows my hand. Then me as I stare at the metal of my ring, glinting against her skin. This is where the gold band belongs.
I run my hand down her flushed chest.
