Chapter 39
Jonah
We stood in the elevator on our way to the top floor of some fancy downtown hotel. I could hardly even remember which one I ended up booking. I just knew I was here, with her. It was already 10:00 p.m. but sleep wouldn’t be happening for either of us anytime soon.
Never would thirteen-year-old Jonah, infatuated with the girl in Spanish class, nor sixteen-year-old Jonah, ravaged by hormones, nor nineteen-year-old Jonah, who thought the world was ending, have imagined that I’d be riding in this elevator with this beautiful creature in front of me, anticipating something I’d dreamed about for years. My most cherished fantasy.
Our first kiss.
I wanted to do so many horrifying things to this girl. Things I’d frankly be ashamed to admit aloud. But that… That first kiss… My heart almost burst just thinking about it. I refused to take it until the moment was perfect. It would be one of the most significant things I ever did.
She stood with her back against the wall of the elevator, cheeks still flushed from the events of the day. The black sweatshirt of mine that she wore swallowed her whole, draping over her jeans, bunching around her hand which was currently rolled up by her chin so she could bite on one nail. She peeked at me through the pieces of hair dangling around her face without a word.
“Are you nervous?” I asked. I certainly was. I was and I wasn’t. How could she be the one person on the planet who made my heart race with nerves yet the one person who could calm me down?
“Yes and no,” she said, the smile in her gaze growing.
There was no hiding the sheer joy on my face, the brightness shining from within, from her. “What are you thinking?”
Those sticky-sweet eyes just gleamed like she was hiding the best secret ever told. “That I love you.”
It was a quiet statement, partially muffled by the thumbnail between her teeth, but I heard it, and it sent my mind into a tailspin. I truly thought I was going to pass out. No number of words, gestures, or drawings could describe just how much I had wanted to hear her say that. For half my life, I waited for this very moment.
“Don’t do that to me here,” I begged.
“Why?”
“Because I’ll stop this elevator and start right here, and I know how much you hate these things.” If the room wasn’t twenty-four floors up, she would’ve insisted on the stairs. Lies. If I weren’t with her, she would have taken the stairs.
“You know, you’ve seen me come twice now, and I’ve never seen you. Only listened.” Those eyes widened to big, brown saucers. “I could get on my knees for you.” She lifted a shoulder. “Just to take the edge off.”
The elevator dinged, saving me from a viral internet scandal. Security Footage Leaked of Lead Singer Getting Blown in Downtown Hotel. I scooped Kai up in one arm, letting her wrap her legs around me and cling to my shoulders while I lifted our suitcase in the other hand and walked us down the hall. She made a show of reaching into my front pocket for the room key, prodding far deeper than she needed to. I groaned and pushed through the door of the room. The suitcase dropped from my fingers, and I set her down at the foot of the bed.
We were finally alone. Truly alone.
I just stared at her. I just fucking stared at her like a tween who had no idea how to go about their first kiss. She stared back, her thumbnail having returned to her teeth, until she took both my hands and sat me on the edge of the bed. Kai crossed her legs and faced me. I pulled one foot off the floor to place it in front of me and turned to face her as well.
I cocked my head and smiled as if to say, What are we? Kids practicing how to kiss at a sleepover?
She shrugged, giggling at my silent question.
“First, I just want to kiss my best friend,” she whispered.
It was perfect. Private, special, nerve-racking. I couldn’t have imagined a better way to do it. “Me too.”
She took off her sweatshirt to get more comfortable, to get ready, and faced me once again, swiping her hair out of her face. I was living my dream. I wanted to cry. I…was. I… I noticed a warm drip rolling down the side of my cheekbone. Kai noted it as well, and the silver that lined her gaze pooled just enough for a tear to roll alongside her nose.
I placed my hands on either side of that beautiful face, and she draped hers around my neck, and I fucking did it. I kissed the girl. My chest cavity damn near exploded as my lips touched hers. She took me in, leaning into me from her cross-legged position. Her mouth was quick to open for me, and I wrapped her tongue in my own. She tasted as sweet as she looked, like everything I’d ever imagined she’d be and so much more, and showed no signs of wanting to stop anytime soon.
Good.
“I love you,” she murmured as she climbed over me, pushing me back on the bed, unrelenting with her delicious kiss.
With a hand weaved through her hair and another on her back, I reciprocated. “I love you, Kai. More than anything in the world.”
“That much?”
The pain in my jeans was growing heavier, taunting me, reminding me that I had years’ worth of praise to catch up on with this beautiful girl. This hotel room was about to see some very shameful things. “Beyond measure.”
◆◆◆
Kai
I couldn’t stop. Not that I wanted to, but if I’d needed to, I would’ve been in deep shit. Our cute, high school kiss quickly turned into something ravenous. But between tongue licks and lip bites, he asked me to do the impossible. “I need you to do something for me.”
His delicious voice only made me press down harder. In lieu of a formal answer, I offered a mhm into his mouth.
“I need you to stand up for me.” He couldn’t contain his desire either, his tongue somehow working mine even around his declarations. “I want you to stand so I can look at you.”
I hummed another mhm, but our activities didn’t slow in the slightest. I couldn’t bring myself to do it, and he only groaned in response. I told myself I was going to get to it eventually, but it seemed his patience got the best of him. A growl surged from his chest as he pushed me away, grabbing me as he stood and walking me to the nearest wall, hands gripping my waist.
“You told me you won’t take no for an answer,” I teased as my back thumped against the surface. “Don’t you think that’s a little forceful?”
He tilted his head, a soft, amused curl on his lips. “I warned you fairly. You sealed your fate with your answer.”
“So, I’m yours forever?”
“Yes.” He was millimeters away from me, his voice a soft breath on my skin.
I grinned. “No.”
His eyebrows tweaked. “No?”
I shook my head. “I changed my mind.”
“Funny.” His fingers dragged slowly up the side of my waist, tucking under my top. “You lost that privilege when you told me I could keep you. And I seem to remember you calling me a dick, as well. You will pay for that.” In one quick movement, he pulled my shirt off me. Without that top, I stood bare-chested to him, wearing nothing more than my jeans and my sneakers. I was both embarrassed and desperate for him to look. And he did. So intently. “I’m trying to take my time with you, but you’re making it very, very hard for me.”
“There’s no need to. We’ve waited long enough.” My declaration was more of a beg, really.
His bright, piercing eyes flicked up to mine. “Don’t rush me, pretty girl. I want you to feel every second.”
A warm gust of bubbles flew from my aching center into my stomach. He bent his legs, kneeling before me as he untied my sneakers and slipped them off. He then lifted himself, letting his eyes roam as his fingers worked the button on my jeans and pushed them down over my hips. They dropped and bunched at my ankles.
He paused, whispering to me. “Is there any part of you you’re not comfortable with me touching?”
“No.” I couldn’t take my focus off him, couldn’t stop watching as he devoured every inch of me with his eyes. I wanted him to touch everything.
Only a black string thong shielded me from his view, and my god, did he bask in it. A pair of lazy fingers trailed up the side of my ribs to the spot I favored most as his lips glided gently across my collarbone. A kiss then sailed to my jaw as his free hand slid one soft finger beneath the rim of my thong, doing nothing more than dragging horizontally along its hem.
Goosebumps appeared across my skin, two large ones on my chest in particular, despite the pleasing temperature of the room. Jonah’s touch possessed the awe of the freezing ocean, the care of a lifelong love, and that irresistible power of a man taking exactly what he wants.
He reached a hand between my legs, doing almost nothing, only palming between my thighs. He kissed me, taking my lips into his own at a steady pace, ensuring I felt every molecule of our skin sliding together. A sensation shot to my center which was only amplified by the soft pressure he was applying. I couldn’t help but release a thick moan.
“God, you beautiful girl.” His words bounced off my skin. “I could listen to you make that sound forever. I will make you make that sound for me over, and over, and over.”
He spent the next minutes exploring me, moving at a painful pace. He touched his lips to every sensitive spot he found and continued until he came across a handful more. The bubbling in my abdomen grew as he stacked little pieces of anticipation inside of me, saving them for later, for when he’d ultimately let me release them.
His face lifted once again to level with mine. I wasted no time in pulling off his shirt, taking the opportunity to slide my hands over every inch of his torso, licking up his chest with my eyes locked on his. My fingers slipped into his waistband and pulled him in. Again, he took my lips in his in a beastly way. Soft, smooth kisses, yet teeth scraping. Tongues caressing, yet firm biting. It would take a thousand hours straight in this room for me to want a break. I was sure of it.
“Kai, I need you to understand…” he said as he pressed me into the wall with his body, tilting my head up with his fingers to bite another kiss from my neck. “How much I love you…” He picked me up by my hips, lifting my feet from the rumple of jeans and wrapping my legs around his waist. “How unparalleled you are…” He carried me over to the bed as he placed soft kisses on my collarbone. “I swear, I value you so much.” He threw me down on the bed and bowed between my thighs. “I need you to remember that, because I just might fuck you like I hate you.”
A shiver ran up my spine at the thought of him fucking me, at the thought of him consuming me. “You do, Jo.” I gasped as his fingers grabbed between my legs. “A little bit.”
“I don’t, Kai.”
“You do.” I propped myself up on my elbows to tug on the wild beast within him. “You do. Because I should’ve known this whole time,” I whispered. “Now, please, I am begging you to take it out on me.”
His eyes widened desperately as he nodded and pulled my thong over my knees with nothing more than two fingers. There are no words to describe the expression on his face when he finally looked between my legs. His tongue pressed into my cunt, swirling, causing my body to arch into the bed, pulling moans from deep within me.
My fingers immediately shot down to grab his hair as an unmanageable bliss spread throughout my body. Within moments he pushed me right over the edge, and I screamed as I tightened into him, giving him absolutely everything.
Jonah didn’t pull away until I stopped shaking, standing up to look down at me. The lines of his torso flexed beneath the tattoos he wore on one side as he breathed, his grin feral and wild. Those beautiful, inked arms moved to the button of his black jeans. He began to unzip, but I gathered my strength and shot off the bed, kneeling before him and ripping his pants down myself.
“Jonah.”I gawked, looking straight ahead at what sprung free. My god, it was…not what I expected.
I looked up at him, and his eyebrows twitched with something I couldn’t quite place, as if he were pretending to be surprised by my reaction. “What? Did you think it’d be smaller?”
I looked back at the thing in front of me, gulping when I realized the notable curve of it was going to hit me exactly where… Oh god.
“Yeah, kind of.”
His eyes flared with masculine rage as he grabbed my hair. I moved in desperately, closing my lips around his incredible cock.
“You’re such a lucky girl, aren’t you?”
I whimpered in response. His eyes rolled back as I slid my lips and tongue over his velvety skin. He looked so incredible as he eased into the sensations, as he savored them.
“Fuck, Kai,” he moaned. “If you keep doing it like that, I’m gonna come.”
“Mhm.” God, how I wanted to watch him fold for me. Those indecent words sounded even more delicious coated in his voice. I widened my eyes sweetly, begging him to let me taste him as he finished.
His jaw twitched open as he stared. For a moment it seemed like he considered caving, but he stopped himself. He sucked in a breath through his teeth and cupped his hand under my chin to wean me away.
“Oh,” he groaned, rubbing his thumb under my swollen lip. “You look so pretty like that.” He reached his hands down and tossed me back on the bed before removing his feet from his bunched-up pants. “Just give me a second.”
He paused, taking a minute to ruffle his hands in his hair and regain his breathing. I took that same moment to look at him standing in front of me like an unwrapped gift, all tattoos visible in one shot, his entire body from head to toe. I had never seen a person look so enticing. I simply desired to do anything and everything to this man.
His lips curved up as he reached down and grabbed my ankle. “Get over here.” He pulled my body closer to him in a swift movement before crawling over me and kissing me again, getting comfortable between my legs. His tip settled where his tongue had been.
“You love me?” he asked, searching my eyes urgently for confirmation.
I nodded. I loved him so much it physically hurt.
“You’re mine?”
Again, I nodded. “Yes.”
“I’m completely yours, Kai. I always have been.”
His cock slid down a touch and began to enter me as his tongue moved simultaneously into my mouth. The delicious combination pulled a moan from my chest which landed in his lips, reassuring him once again that I was his and only his. He began to rock into me, each thrust deeper than the last.
“Jonah.” I breathed heavily as he moved inside of me, that thing hitting me exactly where I knew it would. He exhaled into my neck and pushed harder.
I gasped. “Jonah!” Again, he pushed deeper, wrapping his hands around my shoulders and biting into my neck like an apple.
“Jo-Jon…”I screamed as he held me tight.
Leaning up, he braced my hip with his palm and began to fuck me hard and fast, like he hated me, as promised. I took in every inch of him, my eyes trailing over the lines in his shoulders and arms as he held me there, watching his tattooed torso flex as he fucked me. He slammed into me repeatedly, sending an energy through my body which built at a rapid pace. I was going to break. I needed to break.
Again, I began to tense up, my eyes rolling back.
“Look at me,” he ordered, wrapping his hand around my neck. “I want you to know it’s me.” The pressure hit its peak as I gazed directly into those green eyes. He groaned as I clamped around him. “That’s my girl. Just like that. You look at me when I make you come.”
He let me ride out the waves before removing himself quickly, and I damned him for what he was doing. He wasn’t going to let our adventure end, and I didn’t want it to, but I wanted him to let himself fill me to the fucking brim. I wanted him to explode inside of me so we could touch each other until he was ready to go again.
My body fell limp against the bed, my eyes closing to allow my senses to focus on the luscious feeling running through me. After a few deep breaths, he leaned over me on all fours and began scratching at the sides of my ribs with his teeth. My legs quivered as I realized he was about to make me do that again.
“We’re not done yet, beautiful girl.”
I whimpered as he kissed my stomach. “Again?”
Jonah nodded. “This is what you get for making me wait so many years. I know you can take it.” His eyes flicked down my body and back up to meet mine.
“Again,” I repeated, more of a beg this time. “Please do it again.”
Jonah rolled me over on my stomach and pulled my hips up to his with an evil chuckle. His arms wrapped around my torso, pulling my back to his front, and he nestled his cock inside of me. A hand traveled around my neck and clenched while the other moved between my legs to rub my clit. He spoke directly into my ear and gifted me one long thrust. “You’re doing such a good job, beautiful girl.”
My head fell back, bubbles shooting from my center into my chest as Jonah’s nose drew curves around my ear and jaw. “You’re such a dick.”
“Mmm.” He licked the shell of my ear and circled his fingers faster, spreading the wetness that was all for him. “I love when you talk back to me, like I can’t feel you gripping me as you do it. You’re such a mess.” He forced a squeak out of me with another long thrust. “How does that feel?”
“Harder,” I pleaded.
I could feel him smirking behind me as he moved slowly, sliding into me softly over and over again. “Beg.”
“Please, Jonah.”
“Please what?”
Fucking asshole.
“Please fuck me harder,” I implored, gritting my teeth.
Another chuckle escaped him. “Look at you. You’re the most beautiful thing I’ve ever seen.” He nipped my ear and breathed in. “I love you, Kai. I love you. I’ll do anything you ask of me.” He bit my shoulder as his strength and speed began to pick up. “Besides, I don’t think you were screaming my name loud enough,” he mumbled into my skin. “We’ll need to do better this time.”
God, did we.
◆◆◆
Jonah
My beautiful girl shivered so intensely I thought she might pass out. Perhaps I should’ve given her a break, but my body wouldn’t let me. My head fogged with a lust that disconnected my sanity from my being and threw it right out the window. I had been waiting far too long for this to give out now.
Just moments ago, she was screaming so fucking loud for me. It filled me with a sensation I couldn’t possibly begin to explain. To see her enjoy, to see her open up to me, to see her so free and unbound… My beautiful girl. My whole world. Fuck, I wanted to hear her again. I wanted to hear her forever. I wanted to blast those cries on my headphones and walk around with them all fucking day.
She clung to me the entire time we fucked like she was holding on for dear life as she trusted me to take her. As if she were keeping me close while she walked through the unknown for the first time. I would go anywhere with her, do anything to see her luxuriate in pleasure so wildly. My release be damned, this was all for her.
I trailed my fingers over her back softly as she lay face down on the bed.
“Why aren’t you finishing?” she asked into the sheets. “Is it terrible for you?”
I laughed aloud. Silly girl. “It’s taking everything in me not to. Believe me. I’ve spent an obscene amount of time touching myself lately.”
“Oh, fuck,” she whispered, her body squirming, her hips lifting slightly to rub herself by pressing her own thighs inward. “That’s so hot.”
I leaned down and kissed her cheek, speaking into her ear. “That I’m such a sad loser I had to jerk off before hooking up with you just to make sure I could last?”
“Yes.” She exhaled deeply as she spoke. “I love the desperation. You’re just as obsessed as I am.”
“I’ve had to touch myself before you got into my bed to sleep as friends, let alone to fuck me.”
“You.” She turned herself up to face me. “You’ve touched yourself and then let me get into bed with you?” I just held her by the chin and grinned. “Oh, you fucking loser. Tell me what you thought about.”
Desire burned in her eyes. My wild girl seemed to love how pathetic I was. And thank god for it, because I was. Quite.
“What do you think?” I dragged my lips over her skin as I spoke. “I thought about you. I always think about you. The way you laugh, and that face of yours. I’ve been dreaming about you. About getting you undressed in our room, fucking you on the futon, kissing you in the shower.”
Her eyes expanded wickedly. “It’s my turn,” she said, shooting herself up and pushing me onto my back. She sat down on top of me, letting me fill her completely, the position already doing crazy things to my insides.
“Oh my god.” I jutted my thumbs into the creases of her hips. Her beautiful figure was on full display above me, all mine to observe and honor. “I’ve imagined you in this exact position so many fucking times.”
“You’ve had me in many others already.”
“And you’ve been breathtaking in all of them. But this one…” We were done fucking for the time being. This was something much deeper. She was no longer the brat who snapped at me in Briggs’ bathroom, nor the minx who threatened to touch herself in my bed. She was an absolute angel. The embodiment of all that is good and cherished in my heart.
She began to bob up and down on me. Those beautiful fucking sounds she made as she did so were like a fucking symphony. They were my own personal fucking symphony. Better than any song I’d written, than any feature I’d done. Immediately, I was returned to a state of rapture as she pushed down, grinding on me slowly. The image of her on top of me was simply too much. My vision bowed in and out as my eyes fluttered, my ears swallowing the way her pleasure made her squeak.
I dragged her with me to the head of the bed, sitting up against the headboard so I could be closer to her. She submitted to the pleasure, and I saw in her rolled eyes just how much she loved me. She ran her fingers over my cheekbone, then my jaw, and my lips, staring at me with such innocent desire I practically melted. Her hair fell around her face and shoulders, trailing all the way to her hips. I pushed it behind her back to get a better view of the lines and curves that made up her body. It was simply impossible to take my eyes off her.
“I don’t understand,” she said, “how one person can be so fucking beautiful. God, I could come just looking at you.” I groaned. This incredible creature knew exactly how to destroy me, and she took the words right out of my mouth. She leaned into my ear, cradling my head in her hand. “You are the only person who can see me this way,” she whispered, “who can have me this way.” She bit my ear softly. “I love you, Jonah.”
“Say it again,” I begged.
“I love you, Jonah.”
I whimpered, her soft skin enveloping my body as she rode out the last bit of sanity that remained inside me. Finally, I relinquished all control. Everything I felt from the last decade and more spilled out of me to let her know just how much I fucking loved her. I held her tight as we both shook together, blinding pleasure knocking my senses for fuck knows how long.
◆◆◆
Kai
We lay breathless on the bed, facing each other. I let my eyes trail over every single feature, every modicum of beauty in this divine human, and I saw my entire life. Everything I’d ever been, was, and would be existed in the space between us as I ran my thumb softly over his lip and then his cheek. An inch of air was all that separated us, and it contained everything I’d ever need. All in one place.
Realizing I could never fall too far again with this dreamlike foundation holding me up, I wrapped myself in Jonah, nuzzling my head into the divot between his neck and shoulders, hardly able to keep myself awake.
“Watching you finish was the best thing ever,” I mumbled into his body. He only chuckled. “I’m serious. And your fucking voice. I just… Ugh.”
He hummed affirmatively, stroking his fingers over my shoulder. “I love your little squeaks.” He began to mock me. “Jonah! Jonah! Harder!”
“Oh,” I groaned, face still hidden but my expression teetering on anger. “Don’t you dare make fun of me or, I swear to god, I’ll come again.”
“Oh, Jonah, please! You feel so goo—” His sentence was interrupted by my hand around his neck and my lips on his.
“I will take you down right here, right now, asshole. Don’t fucking play with me. I can go all night.”
He snickered in my face. “You better accept a break while you can.”
I pulled him into a kiss that quickly turned into a lashing of tongues, a deep tasting. My lips dragged to his ear. “Your cum is leaking from between my thighs. Why don’t you use it to fuck me again?”
He growled low in his chest, pulling my hips closer to him and kissing me deeply. “Because we’ve been in here for a very long time, beautiful girl, and while I love watching you relish, I’d also like to enjoy being with you in other ways.”
Reluctantly, I decided he might be right and let my lazy head plop back down on the pillow. My body was utterly limp. Wrung dry.
“Don’t go falling asleep until you’ve washed up,” he said kindly as he wrapped his arms around me and kissed my shoulder. His hands slid up and down my back, lulling me off to some dreamland that I must have arrived at inadvertently after traveling through realms of pleasure. “It’s not good for you, Kai.”
I only whined.
“Come on. Go ahead and do what you need to do. I’ll count to a hundred and come join you.”
I rolled backward, smushing the bed beneath me as I moved. My rolling continued to the edge, and I got up to go to the bathroom, peeking back at him only once before entering. He was watching me, one hand in his hair and a wide smile on his face. He looked like the happiest person on the planet, and I forced myself not to run back and jump on him.
Approximately one hundred and sixteen seconds later, Jonah entered the bathroom to find me already in the glass shower, wet from head to toe. I watched as he used the toilet with full confidence, aiming with one tattooed arm.
“Jonah!” I had half a mind to turn away. My best friend doing that right in front of me? It was something I never thought I’d see.
“Shit, sorry. I’m supposed to do this in the shower, right?”
I held my fingers to my gaping mouth, my line of vision firmly on his scribbled arm, firm hand, and beautiful cock. “I’m watching you use the bathroom.”
“And I just watched you come,” he said, eyes focused on what he was doing and his free hand rubbing his jaw. “Four times.” He looked up at me quickly. “And twice earlier today, my god, Kai. Are you still in one piece?”
I giggled and shook my head to let him know that I was not.
He joined me in the shower and rinsed himself in the stream. I ran my palms upwards over his drizzled chest and reached them behind his head, hugging him into my arms and melting into another kiss. His fingers slipped up my back, caressing every curve of my skin in the wet heat.
He put his forehead to mine. “I am sorry, Kai. About everything.”
“Me too, Jo. I wasn’t very nice to you, and I’m sorry. I know you’re scared. So am I.” In contrast to my apology, I could do nothing but smile at him. He smiled back. How comforting to simply understand each other. “Do you want a big wedding or a small wedding?”
The curve dropped from his face as he pulled away completely, wrapping each of my forearms in his hands. “What?”
“And can we do a winter honeymoon? I’ve had a lot of beach paradises for one lifetime. I want to see the mountains. Maybe Switzerland. Or Norway. I’m thinking a cozy cabin with a hot tub type deal.” I continued to dream aloud, but my grin slowly fell as I watched him.
His lips seemed to work on words that wouldn’t come out. I thought there was just shower water spraying his face, but when I looked closer, I realized some of those drops were falling from his bottom set of lashes. “You want to marry me?”
My eyebrows pooled in the center of my forehead. “I thought we said forever.”
“I guess I just…” He brandished his white teeth as a chuckle squeezed a few more tears from those green eyes. “It’s all just a little surreal.” Another tearful laugh cracked through him, and he wrapped his hands around my head. “My beautiful girl. All you had to do was wear that stupid T-shirt to Spanish class, and that was it for me.”
I pressed myself into him. “I think we can finally fold up that futon in our room, don’t you think?”
“Oh, I’ve been waiting so long to hear you say that.” He kissed my lips, then my cheek, then pulled me into a tight, encompassing hug. “It’ll be a big party with everyone we love. That’s what you want, right? We’ll have it during the day so we can be done by a reasonable hour. That way, we can sneak off somewhere private with enough time to ourselves. That’s what I want. You’ll have mountains of strawberries covered in sugar and plenty of french fries. The rest we’ll decide together.”
“Yes.”
“Then we’ll steal away to a nice cabin with a hot tub and a shower big enough for the two of us. You’ll be able to see the northern lights from the porch. We’ll spend the days exploring and the nights on every surface in the house.”
I snuggled in as the water ran over us, covering us in a hot paradise. This was it. This was the comfort and belonging I’d been so severely lacking all this time. He was the missing piece. “You are everything I could ever wish for, Jonah.”
“Then I’m afraid we’re stuck together.”
“We are. And I won’t take no for an answer.”