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He sighed as he pulled my face closer. “Have I mentioned how magical you are?”
“Maybe,” I whispered against his lips.
“Thank you for letting me be honest and human, with no judgment for the mistakes I’ve made. Mistakes I told Jameson I would try to make right, but I don’t know how—or even if I can.”
“I’ll help you, if you’ll let me.” I drew closer, breathing him in slowly.
“Charlotte, I don’t want to hurt you or Jameson in the process.”
It was the first time I had ever believed that Drake Foster could be scared. I heard it in the very timbre of his voice. “Here’s the thing: families are messy—even in my own family, as wonderful as it is, we hurt each other sometimes. But we never give up on each other.”
“Don’t give up on me,” Drake begged.
“I don’t think I could, even if I wanted to. Apparently, my soul is always meant to search for yours.”
“Then I am the luckiest of men.” His lips brushed mine before pressing against them and owning them. To leave no doubt about how he felt, his tongue consumed my mouth before his hands glided down my back, drawing me closer to him. Keeping him at arm’s length went totally out the window. It was a soul mate thing. That was my story, and I was sticking to it. Just like I was sticking with him.
Chapter Nineteen
“We need to tell Jameson about you.” I sat on a chair with my legs crisscrossed, next to Drake’s bed while watching him eat. I opted for the chair because . . . well . . . let’s just say I was holding to some rules, and we had gotten too close to breaking them. Drake may own my soul, but my body would remain my own for the time being. Sex had a way of complicating things, and this situation was already complicated enough, thanks—in part—to sex. No matter what people say, sex has its costs, and the stakes were too high this time. Jameson had to remain front and center in all of this. His well-being was my number one priority. And I wanted a commitment from Drake before we crossed that line again. We are talking, let’s pick a date, call a preacher, figure out his past kind of commitment. Maybe even get him to talk to his dad, if at all possible. I would bring that one up later—you know, after I told my son what a liar I was.
Drake wiped his mouth with the linen napkin I had provided him. “I know. I’ll have Martez make some calls and rearrange my schedule.”
“So, you’re going to stay for a while?” My heart pitter-pattered like Thumper.
“I want to get to know Jameson.”
That was the perfect answer for my mama heart. “I know he’ll love that. I will too.”
“I don’t want to hide our relationship from him,” he pulled no punches.
I tilted my head. “Are we in a relationship?” I sang. Hoping that I was close to singing a chorus of “It’s About Freaking Time.”
“If what just happened in this bed a moment ago is any indication, I’m going to say yes.” He hit me with his dampened smile.
All while he had me blushing, thinking of that glorious event. “Okay, I guess you can be my boyfriend,” I teased.
“You guess?”
“I mean, sure, if you really want to be.” I tried to act nonchalant about it, while the butterflies in my stomach threw a fiesta.
“Oh, I really want to be,” he said with so much swagger, I was going to swoon.
I cleared my throat and remembered I was a mother and shouldn’t fling myself on the bed. “Then it’s settled,” I stammered. Holy goodness was he going to be the death of my glands.
“You okay there?” he asked with such cockiness, knowing full well the effect he had on me, and every other female.
I sat up taller. “I’m fine.”
“Yes, you are.” He wagged his brows.
I rolled my eyes, although I loved every second of this conversation. “Now that we have that settled, how do we tell our son I lied to him?” Tears immediately stung my eyes. All the cheeriness I was feeling went up in flames with the reality that loomed before me.
Without missing a beat, he responded, “Blame it on me.”
I could kiss him for that response but . . . “I can’t do that.”
“Why?”
“For one, it’s not true; you didn’t make me lie to him. And I don’t want your relationship with Jameson to begin with any wedges.”
Drake gave me a knowing nod. He knew all about wedges between fathers and sons.
I was determined our little family wouldn’t create any obstacles that would tear us apart.
Drake set his tray of food to the side and reached out for my hand, which I gladly gave him. “We will help him to understand.”
