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“What happened to calling me Stevenson?” I teased.
“I’ve tasted your sweet pussy. Calling you ‘Stevenson’ seems wrong when that decadent flavor is still on my lips.” He kissed me again, and Krush growled at him unhappily. “Get your own girl,” Remington told him, rubbing his hand over the massive dog’s glossy black fur.
Grinning, I scratched Krush’s head. “I thought bull terriers were banned in the UK.”
“I found the loophole,” he told me. “I rescued Krush when we lived in New York for a few weeks. His old family couldn’t keep him because he was too big to handle in their apartment, and the cost of his food alone was too much for them to afford. It was a kill shelter and he was so damn beautiful, even if he had been aggressive, I would have taken him home with me.”
“He’s not aggressive.” I scratched Krush’s back. “Are you, sweet baby?”
He turned his head and licked my face, making me giggle again.
“No, he’s pretty laid-back. Which was why I was able to bring him to London when we moved here. I had to prove he’s not a danger to anyone, and register him.” Remington turned so he was sitting beside me against the pillows and then picked the tray back up. “You need to eat. It’s almost noon.”
I picked up a triangle of toast and took a hungry bite. Krush rolled over to face me and gave me those big, soulful eyes, and I offered him a small bite.
“Shameless,” Remington muttered with a shake of his head. “You keep spoiling him like that and he’s not going to let you leave this house without him.”
“Maybe I don’t want to leave,” I muttered under my breath.
“You mean that?”
My head snapped up, heat filling my cheeks because I didn’t realize I’d said it loud enough for him to hear. But when I saw the hope in those beautiful eyes, my heart melted. I gasped at the sensation. I hadn’t felt something like that in years. Not since I’d watched my heart get pulled away by the waves after Luca had decimated the damn organ.
“Did you mean it when you called me your girl?” I asked instead of answering his question.
He cupped the side of my face. “I’ve wanted you to be mine since you were sixteen, Violet. But there was always something in our way. I still want you to be mine. Would give up everything I own if that was what it took. But if you don’t want to be, if you’re still in love with someone else, then I’m not going to stand in your way.”
“Part of me will probably always love Luca,” I told him honestly. Hurt sparked in his eyes, and my heart clenched. Before he could drop his hand from my cheek, I covered it with my own and pressed his fingers into my skin. “But I’m not in love with him anymore.”
“Does that mean your heart is free for the taking?”
“I’m fairly certain there’s only one guy in the universe who could hold on to it right now.” I grinned up at him as his eyes began to burn with hunger. “He looks like a god in nothing but a pair of gray sweats and has a wickedly talented tongue—something I’m seriously jealous over, because I know he had to have been practicing those skills on someone to get so good at it.”
“No one who ever mattered until now,” he breathed. “It’s always been you I’ve wanted, Violet. I walked into that damn school and took one look at you, and I felt like my heart wasn’t my own any longer. If t
here hadn’t been someone else for you back then, I probably would have packed you in my pocket and taken you everywhere with me from that day on.”
“There’s no one else now.” I leaned into him, enjoying the clean scent of his skin and damp hair. “And I meant it when I said I don’t want to leave.”
“I don’t want you to leave either.” He stroked his fingers down my neck, making goose bumps pop up along the way. “If I had my way, I’d keep you right here for the rest of my life. But you have college to get back to?”
“And you have work?”
We both said it like questions, but I wondered if either of those things was really a reason we should hold ourselves back. I didn’t want to go back to school. And right then, I wasn’t even sure I wanted to move to online classes. All I knew was that I didn’t want to leave Remington.
“I’ve been slowly transferring all of my grandfather’s work over to his CEOs,” he told me. “I never wanted the company. He knew that, but it didn’t stop him from pushing it on me. When he died, I decided I would make sure the company stayed strong and the executives who were in charge would keep the place running smoothly. Too many people would lose their jobs for me to just walk away from it without making sure it was secure. But I promised myself that everything would be ready for me to step down by the time of the unveiling of this car.”
He brushed a kiss over my forehead. “That’s why I’ve been so busy lately. Putting the finishing touches on everything so that I was ready when I saw you again.”
“You planned this?” I stared up at him in amazement. “For us to be together now?”
“Hoped.” His mouth twisted. “But if you weren’t ready, or if you were still hung up on the ex, I wasn’t going to push you.”
I just sat there, stunned by what he was confessing. “I don’t know what to say,” I finally whispered, my heart racing.
“Say you’ll stay with me.” Krush grumbled again, and Remington sighed. “With us,” he corrected, causing me to giggle. “Because apparently Krush has staked his claim on you.”
“Stay…here?” I asked, glancing around at the bedroom. It was huge, and beautifully decorated, but it felt kind of empty.
