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“No,I’msorry,” I say. “I mean, I knew you weren’t happy about it, but I thought we agreed that as long as we have each other, we have everything we really need.”
She nods. “I know. And I still believe that. Watching you with Fluffy Butt last night—” She shifts her gaze to Patrick. “Fluffy Butt is our new cat. He’s having separation anxiety, so we decided to bring him on the trip.” Before Patrick can reply, or I can fully fight off my amusement at her choice of names, she turns back to me.
“So yeah, watching you with him,” she continues, “how gentle and patient you were, even when he got sick, and it smelled terrible…” Her lips curve. “It made me realize we can be a family without having children. We can love Fluffy Butt and each other and maybe a dog someday if the condo association ever decides to allow dogs. And…it can be enough. More than enough.” She steps closer, tipping her head back to hold my gaze. “As soon as I realized that, all the sex weirdness went out the window, and I wanted to make out with you more than ever.”
I squeeze her hands as I tip my head closer to hers. “You should have.”
“You were asleep,” she says with a flirty bat of her lashes.
“You should have woken me up,” I say, my voice husky. “Always wake me up.”
“You needed your rest. And I didn’t want you to feel like you wasted your money on this weekend.”
“No money invested in yourself or each other is ever a waste,” Patrick says.
“Hush, Patrick,” Nora says, making me grin. “I need to tell my husband that I love him and think he’s the sexiest man alive and that I’m never going to pass up a chance to get naked with him ever again.”
“And I’m going to kiss my wife and promise to keep an open mind about having kids in the future,” I say, drawing Nora against me. “Because with a mom like you, I know they’d turn out great.”
“And until then we can always practice making babies,” she says, twining her arms around my neck. “Practice makes perfect.”
“You’re already perfect,” I say, meaning it. She’s so sweet and funny and confident and sexy as hell and suddenly I don’t understand why I’ve been fighting this.
Her. Me. We just…fit.
As I cover her lips with mine, kissing her with everything in me, it’s as natural as if I’d done it a thousand times.
My tongue sweeps against hers, tasting Earl Grey tea and honey and a hint of the vanilla scone she had for breakfast and…Nora. It’s the Nora part of it that I know I’ll crave for the rest of my life. She’s as familiar as my own face in the mirror and as mysterious as the darkest depths of the ocean and I don’t ever want to come up for air. The feel of her in my arms, her body soft and eager against mine, her lips saying a hundred unspoken things I haven’t realized I’ve been dying to hear…
She’s magic. And she feels the same way about me, a fact she proves when she finally pulls back with a soft, “Wow.”
I exhale. “Double wow.”
“You really do it for me, Charles,” she whispers, her eyes dancing into mine, desire, wonder, and unspoken questions mixing in their blue depths.
“And you two both do if for me,” Patrick says, throwing ice water on the moment. “I’m not a fan of romantic movies, but you could give any one of those couples a run for their money. You’re both just so damned good-looking. And that was some wonderful communication.”
“Aw, thank you, Patrick,” Nora says. “We try. So, do you think we’re ready for the finish line? I’d love to get our participation medals and get back to the coffee station before they run out of hot water for tea.”
“I can make that happen,” Patrick says, looking a little sad. “I wish all my sessions were this successful. There’s a lot of pain out there in the world, guys. A lot of heartbreak. You’re lucky to have each other.”
Nora leans against my side, resting her head on my shoulder as I wrap my arm around her waist and hug her close. “We really are. I couldn’t ask for a better partner.”
“Me, either,” I second, meaning it.
Five minutes later, once we’ve received our medals and posed for a cheesy picture under the sparkly “Finish Line for Love” banner and are on our way back to our room, I tell Nora, “Okay. You can come with me to meet with Rex.”
She squeals and jumps into the air, making the elevator shake.
“But you stay out of his sight until you get my signal that it’s safe to come over,” I add firmly. “And you never step away from the crowd. You’ll be safe there. Bad Dog folks have their faults, but they’re not going to let you be dragged into an unmarked van.”
Nora claps her hands beneath her mile-wide grin. “We’re going to be spy partners! I can’t wait.” I pull in a breath to correct her, but she reaches out, touching her fingers to my lips. “I know, I’m not really a spy or your partner, but let me pretend. It’s fun to pretend.” Her smile fades as our eyes meet. “I liked pretending you were mine.”
And that’s it, the straw that broke the camel’s vow of chastity.
I reach for her, pulling her against me and kissing her with all the pent-up longing she’s inspired since the day she swept back into my life and set about ruining all my carefully laid plans.
Fuck the plans.
