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“Never,” he growls, his hand tightening on my shoulder. “That’s not it at all.”
“Can you blame me for thinking that?” I murmur. “The way you walked away…”
“I know, I know,” he says quickly. “But that wasn’t why. I turned away because I was about to blurt it all out.”
“Blurt what out?”
“My true feelings for you.”
My chest tightens, as though telling me this is it.
Everything I’ve dreamed of, it’s happening right now…
Don’t get ahead of yourself, I say in my mind.
But it’s too late. I already have.
“When I saw you at that party,” he says, voice low and passionate, “it was more than just wanting to fuck you. Don’t get me wrong. You looked – you look – smoking hot. You drive me crazy every time I look at you. But it was more than that. It was…”
“What?” I grip onto his chest, hugging closer. “Tell me, Bennet.”
“It was like my whole goddamn world reshaped itself right there. The second I saw you, I knew, Lorelei. I knew I had to have you. And I don’t mean in the bedroom. I mean for life.”
A shiver runs through me, a tickle crawls up my spine, as I dare to believe this is real. He means it.
Could it be a trick?
But Bennet would never do something so cruel. I know that.
“I saw you and I knew I had to claim you, but not just for a day or a week or a month. I knew I had to make you mine, and only mine, forever. I knew that if I ever saw you with another man I’d snap and lose it because in my head you already belonged to me. I knew I was going to fill you with my seed, and you were going to give me a family, a future.”
I gasp as the tears bead in my eyes, clinging to my lashes before sliding down my cheeks. “I don’t…”
But I can’t speak. The tears come with too much force, as though the deluded kid with the crush is weeping with joy deep inside of me. I collapse against him, burying my face in his chest.
“Keep going,” I whisper, wondering if he can hear me through the tears and the closeness.
“You’re mine.” His voice is a matter of fact. “I know it in my bones, in my soul if such a thing exists. Mine. Nobody else’s. I look into our future and I see children, a life worth fighting for. I see a house and happiness and all the things I stopped believing I’d ever want.
“You ignited all that inside of me. That’s why I’ve tried to avoid coming by your place. I knew that if I saw you with a boyfriend, I’d snap, even if it wasn't his fault. It’s like there’s a beast inside of me, telling me to claim you every. Single. Second.”
“So you don’t care I’m a virgin?”
He laughs huskily. “It’s not that I don’t care. I’m glad. Because it means I will own you, Rory. You will belong to me, and only me, for the rest of our lives.”
He pauses, stroking his hands through my hair, tingles trickling over my scalp.
“This is the part where you tell me I’m crazy,” he says a moment later.
“How can I?” I look up at him, made blurry by my tears. “Bennet, I feel exactly the same way. I’ve wanted a life with you forever. I’ve needed it ever since we almost kissed. I thought you just wanted me for sex, or maybe a fling. But this, this… it changes everything.”
“Wait. You want the same?” His voice piques with hope, making him sound uncharacteristically boyish. “You want a family, a life, a future together?”
I giggle and nod, infected by his enthusiasm, enticed by this new side of him. “Yes, Bennet. I want it all. I need it all.”
His smirk transforms into a smile I’ve ever seen on his face, as he leans down and presses his lips against mine. We sink into the kiss, forgetting about the rest of the world for a little while.
But then I break the kiss off, with an effort.
“Except…”
His eyes darken. He knows. “Except now things with Rick are going to be even more complicated.”
I bite down, nodding. “I said we wouldn’t tell him until we had something to tell. Well, now we do.”
“Good. Then let’s tell him.”
I flinch, sitting up straight. “What? That’s not what I meant at all. We can’t just tell him.”
“Why not?” Bennet says. “We want the same thing. Hell, I have to say that again. We want the same thing.”
I smile, reaching up and playfully pinching his cheek. “Bennet, you’re supposed to be a tough guy. You sound a little giddy right now.”
“Can you blame me? I thought you were going to call me crazy.”
“No, or maybe yes. Who cares if we’re crazy? If we want the same thing…”
