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“You…” He rubbed a hand against the back of his neck. “I mean, you have feelings for me?”
She screwed up her face in disbelief at his question and sighed. “Well, yeah.”
“Oh.” Anton blinked and shook his head like he had just been hit with a blunt object—and maybe he had. It wasn’t like sort-of-declarations of feelings were an everyday occurrence.
“Oh, wow. Just-I…wow. Grace, I mean, uhhh.” He stammered. He sounded like his brain was short circuiting. From another man that stuttering, stumbling string of words might have done her in and made her turn tail and run back to the bonfire, or maybe even push her to take the tram back down the mountain in horror...but now, with him, it was different. His voice was filled with a sort of awe that made her go still. The look in his eyes was reverent.
She saw the magic come back into his eyes and her knees went weak. She hadn’t been wrong when he’d looked at her before. She knew it. They stared at each other for a long beat while Grace tried to make sense of Anton’s reaction.
“I see.” He rubbed a hand over his jaw. “Then tell me, what do people do?” He took a step toward her, and then another, and this time Grace didn’t backpedal, didn’t look for an escape or a way to put space between them. This time she waited for him, leaned into him almost, as he came closer.
“They get in relationships and see what happens,” she told him.
“And then?” He took another step toward her until they stood only inches apart. She could feel the heat of his body on hers, and she blushed.
“Well, I don’t...I don’t know, all right? No one knows when they start a relationship. Sometimes it works out and sometimes it doesn’t, but that’s the risk. You don’t get to wrap things up in a nice little bow on some arbitrary date and move on like nothing happened. You let your walls down and pray to Odin they don’t hurt you because it’s worth it.”
He took a deep breath. “So what does that mean in relation to my proposal exactly?”
“It means that I have a counteroffer,” Grace said.
He inclined his head to her. “I’m listening.”
“Well, we already know that I...that I like you, so you know what? I propose a relationship,” she blurted out.
“A what?!”
“A relationship. A real one. None of this funny half-assed stuff, none of that ‘we’re just talking’ bull. A real bona fide relationship.” She pinned him with a look and tossed her pink hair over her shoulder.
“I’ve never really been good at that,” he said, voice quiet.
She shot him a smoking pair of finger guns. “No time like the present, as they say.”
Anton gave her a half-smile. “They do say that, don’t they?”
“Verily.” She worried her bottom lip as she watched him consider her words. He was silent for another beat before he nodded to himself.
“Right, then,” he said, turning to her. His dark eyes slid up her body with a deliberate slowness that made her breath catch.
Holy hell. He was actually going to do it, wasn’t he?
“I accept,” he declared.
“Really?” Grace squeaked as he began to reach for her. Her breath stilled in her chest when his hands settled on her hips, warm fingers rubbing against her sides.
“What was it you said? Verily?” He drew her close to him with a gentle tug on her jeans. “But for it to be official, we have one more thing to do.”
“What’s that?” Grace turned her face up to look at him and he closed the space between them. She was pressed up against him, chest-to-chest and toe-to-toe, as she waited for him to speak.
Anton reached out a finger and tipped her chin up. “Seal it with a kiss. Only way to be on the up-and-up. I’m not going into this with you taking advantage of me by not signing off on the deal.”
“Yes, let’s notarize this agreement.” Her eyes had already fluttered closed in anticipation of the kiss.
He chuckled. “A deal’s a deal. We are in a bona fide relationship.”
Grace bobbed her head, eyes still closed. “Now make it real official-like and kiss me, sailor. I’ve been waiting for this moment for months. Lay it on me.”
“However long you waited for this,” he whispered, his lips brushing against hers in the barest caress, “I have waited for far longer.” And before Grace could even begin to process those words, he kissed her again, this time in earnest.
