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God, he was so much more well-adjusted than I was. So sure of himself. So comfortable with his emotions.
I wondered if, over time, some of that would rub off on me.
“Us?” I heard myself ask, not having been aware of getting ready to say it until the word was out of my lips.
Aurelio’s head tipped to the side, watching me.
“Yeah, us. Is that what this is about?” he asked, eyes softening.
“I’m being stupid,” I declared, wanting to brush it off, uncomfortable with the way his gaze was penetrating into me.
“You’re not being stupid,” he countered. “I think I just assumed that things were more obvious than they have been,” he said. “So, let me be clear here. There’s an us. This,” he said, waving between our chests, “is something that is more than just sex. Though, I’m enjoying the fuck out of that too,” he added, trying to bring some levity into a serious conversation I was clearly uncomfortable with.
It worked.
A little airless laugh escaped me.
“Listen, Claire. I wouldn’t fuck around with you if I wasn’t serious. Not when Judah is involved. I wouldn’t have started anything, let alone let it continue like it has, if I didn’t think this was going somewhere.”
“Honestly, I was worried you might think I was just feeding you lines if I said any of this too early.”
“I’m pretty sure you wouldn’t need to feed a woman lines to get her into bed,” I said, shaking my head.
“Angel, I’d feed ‘em to you on a silver spoon to get you into bed,” he admitted, his eyes bright. “But I want to be clear before we end up there again that I’m not in this for that. I’m in it for you. And Judah.
“I think we have something good going here. Granted, this—“ he said, waving around at the house in general, “isn’t what our real life is going to be like. But I think things were pretty good before we came here too. You know, minus the threats and the inability to leave the house.”
“Well, I was kind of used to not being able to leave the house,” I said, shrugging. “Besides, who would want to leave a house like that?”
“I think to give this a real shot, we need to live like normal people. Not like a prisoner and her warden. Wanna get you your own independence when we get back. Get you back on your bank accounts. Find you a car. Shit to let you live your life a little. Figure out if this is what you want.”
I didn’t mean for the laugh to escape me, but it had his brows raising.
“That’s funny?”
“It’s funny that you think that having a car would change anything,” I said. “All it would do would make me eager to get back home to you.”
“Yeah?” he asked, eyes all gooey as he looked at me, and I felt a little surge of hope that he was feeling what I was.
Not just interest.
Not just attraction.
But love.
Or, at least, the start of it.
The trip before the fall, at least.
“Yeah,” I said, running my hands up his chest to wrap around his neck, and sealing my lips to his.
After that, well, there wasn’t much talking as we explored each other while Judah slept.
And, somehow, the sex was even more intense that afternoon, then evening, secure in the knowledge that we were both on the same page, that we were heading somewhere.
Maybe even toward forever.
As we both drifted off to sleep, though, we had no idea just how short forever could be…
