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He laughed. “Well, I’m not saying it’s not. Mr. Adams would definitely agree with you, but that’s not what I was going to say, either. I was going to say that I think I—”
My eyes flew open, and I looked at him. “Stop right there.”
“What? What’d I say?” he asked, a look of shock on his handsome face.
“Nothing.Yet.”
“O-o-o-kay.”
I sighed. “Here’s the thing, Pax. This is good. We’re good. Everything’s really fucking good right now. I’m just not ready to hear what I think you were about to say yet.”
He nodded. “Okay. But for the record, I think things are good, too.”
“Well,good.” I smiled. “The thing is, I don’t need labels to be happy. I don’t need to prove anything to anybody but you. And vice versa. And you did that by saving my ass back at Lamour, and in all the little things you’ve done since. And, frankly, it’s nobody else’s business. Why do they get to decide what love and marriage and happiness looks like for us?”
“They don’t.”
“So, youdoget it?” I asked, looking at him, staring straight into his gorgeous, glacial-blue eyes. Eyes that never failed to take my breath. There was so much depth in those beautiful baby blues. So much . . .goodness.
“I get it. I just . . .” He sighed. “I told you when we first slept together that I like labels. And in my mind, Sky, I’m yours.”
That made something inside me warm, and I smiled. “You know what? I’m actually okay with that,” I said, and the corner of my mouth kicked up.
“Well, hallelujah.” He brought my hand to his lips and kissed the back of it.
I felt as if I needed to say more. Just to make sure he understood. “I can see a future for us, Pax. I don’t know exactly what that looks like, but Icanpicture it. And I like what I see. I want to live in the moment. I want to savor each passing second of every single day and bask in whatever life throws at us.”
“Can we do that together?” he asked, the look on his face so pleading, my heart twisted. He didn’t need to say the words—those three that were said so much and with such flippancy that they sometimes started not to mean anything anymore. I knew exactly how he felt just by looking at him. And it made me happier than I ever expected to feel.
“I did say ‘us,’ didn’t I?”
“Fair point. So, if I someday ask you again if I can tell you something?”
“I may let you. That day. I may not. I dunno. We’ll have to see.” I winked.
“You’re mean.” He stood, picked me up out of my chair, and plopped back down in his with me in his lap. “What if I decide I want to ask you a question someday in the future?”
“You can ask me all sorts of questions, Pax. Doesn’t mean I’ll answer them. Especially not the way you want me to. I mean, you know I can be contrary.” I shrugged, teasing. “But as forthatone, meh . . . you can ask, I suppose. Just know that I’m not stepping foot in a church, and there will be no white involved. But seeing you in a tux . . . mmm, oh, yeah,”—I wiggled in his lap—“that might be worth saying yes for.”
“Duly noted. And I’d suffer that. But only for you,” he said and laughed before kissing my neck.
And he didn’t stop there. He licked and nibbled, tugged and caressed. He worked me into a frenzy right there on the porch, and just as I was about to crest that hill and fall into oblivion from his hands alone—still completely clothed, I might add—he . . . freaking stopped.
“Goddamnit, Pax. Are you fucking serious right now?”
“Hestillhas nothing to do with this.”
“You’re damn right, he doesn’t,” I growled. “You’d better finish what you started there or—” I squealed as he stood and threw me over his shoulder, taking me into the cabin.
He bounced me onto the bed and then stripped us both completely, getting back to what he’d started outside and making me see stars not once but twice. By the time he finally joined with me, I was crazy with lust—and yeah, maybe a little bit of love . . . but he didn’t need to know that.Yet. When he moved in that perfect way he did, knowing exactly what I liked, intuiting precisely what I needed in the moment, I cried out.
When we both came down from our epic highs, he cuddled me close, and I basked in the comfort and safety I felt in his arms.
“This. Right here.Thisis where I want to be.”
He kissed my head. “I’m not going anywhere, Sky. We’ll take each day as it comes and live them all to their fullest. We’ll enjoy each other and our friends and our jobs and make every day mean something.” He squeezed me tight. “With no labels.” He paused. “At least, not yet.”
“I dunno. I have one I might want to use now?” I turned over my shoulder to look at him.
