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“And I have more up in the closet. They’re replaceable.”
“According to a cursory internet search on my phone, their market value is three hundred dollars. I just bled over three-hundred-dollar sheets,” she mutters tearily.
I laugh into her hair, earning her narrow-eyed glare. “I’m sorry, Katydid. I’m not laughing at you.”
“Uh-huh.”
“I just haven’t seen this side of you in a long time. You’re generally either ice-cold or fiery pissed, and this sweet, emotional side of you is very precious to me.”
“I’m notprecious,” she grumbles.
“You are the most precious. Now, listen to me. Ilovedgiving you those orgasms, not to mention receiving every orgasm you gave me. And while your cuddling may be a bit... active, I slept better holding you than I have in a very long time.”
“You did?”
“I did,” I tell her softly, kissing her. “So stop worrying about what’s not perfect and focus on what is, Katerina. This. Right here.”
She sinks into me, kissing me back, her hands tangling in my hair. But then she pulls away suddenly and sniffs the air. “Hey. Is something burning?”
I glance over my shoulder and see the pumpkin pancakes smoking in the pan. “Shit!”
—
“Okay.” Walking down the sidewalk toward her apartment, I hand Kate a pumpkin muffin covered in cream cheese frosting, freshly unearthed from the Nanette’s pastry box. “Pumpkin-based breakfast, take two.”
Kate accepts the muffin, then bites into it, smiling, her gaze dancing over me.
“What?” I ask, smiling back at her, adjusting her laundry bag on my shoulder.
“You’re just really sweet,” she says, shrugging. “I feel spoiled.”
I bite into my butter croissant and say around my bite, “I have bad news for you, Kate. I’m just getting started, spoiling you.”
She rolls her eyes as she bites into her muffin again, but a pretty blush sweeps up her cheeks, and she can’t hide her smile.
I stare at her, feeling my heart pound, hard and feverish. God, I love her. Iloveher.
And I do want to spoil her. I want to surprise her with plane tickets to wherever her heart desires and leave behind work, devoting myself only to those smiles and blushes and learning all the scattered, lovely things her brain notices and absorbs.
I want to wake up every day to her smoky laugh and hard kisses. I want her fierce intensity and lung-burning sprint races for the most unexpected things. I want to sleep curled around her and talk while she bathes and cook with her in the kitchen. I want to stare into those stormy eyes and feel the thrill of knowing there’s so much I already know about her and so much more that I don’t, this dizzying cocktail of memory and mystery.
I watch her smile up at me, her hand finding mine and lacing our fingers together. And I feel the world tip beneath me.
I want to give Kate everything she deserves. I want to promise her and ask for everything, too. I hope we’ll figure out how that’s possible for two people who live so differently, that somehow our lives can meet halfway.
Kate squeezes my hand and smiles up at me, reminding me what’s changed—what all this is about.
I don’t have answers yet, but I don’t have to find them on my own. Kate and I will do thattogether, hand in hand. One step at a time.
•THIRTY-FIVE•
Kate
“I’ll take that.” Stopped outside my apartment door, I reach for the massive bag of now clean laundry from Christopher’s shoulder. He doesn’t seem inclined to give it up.
“I’m fine carrying it,” he says.
I blink at him, weighing my options. My room—Juliet’s room, where I’m staying—looks like a tornado hit it. Even with most of my dirty laundry scraped into a bag, it’s still a wreck of, among many other random odds and ends, half-drunk water cups and snack bar wrappers because snack bars are about all I managed to eat this week. The last time he saw my room was that paintball night, and its status was borderline hide-from-anyone-whose-good-opinion-I-value, but by the time he’d tucked me in, it was dark and he left before sunrise, so I got away with it.
