Chapter 16 #3
I leaned back in my chair and grinned. This was an easy one.
So I spoke the words honestly. “You stop me in my tracks. You take my breath away. I admire everything about you. And now I see that you’re a wonderful mother too.
Every minute I’m with you, I thank my lucky stars for you. And I feel that way about Rosebud too.”
That made her start to flat-out cry. Of course, the waitress chose that time to arrive to take our order. “I’ll come back,” she said, quickly backing away.
After she left, I handed Ani my napkin and said, “I want to remind you that this is supposed to be a fun evening.” I’d figured that after all this high emotion, we’d probably end it by settling in bed watching Netflix.
But that would be okay. At least we’d be together.
She was still dabbing at her eyes. “Please don’t cry. ”
She used the napkin to blow her nose and then met my gaze. “Adam, you’re misunderstanding me. No one has ever said anything so wonderful to me.”
Good. I wanted to tell her more wonderful things, preferably upstairs, but I wasn’t sure if she wanted that. Out of the corner of my eye, I could see the waitress making her way back. “Are you hungry?”
She set down the napkin on her empty plate and said definitively, “I’m ready to go back to the room.” She paused. “And eat from the minibar.” She gave me a poignant look, and then glanced at her watch as she stood. “We’d better hurry. Sixteen hours and counting.”
I’m sure I flashed her a giant, wicked smile. Could we spend the next sixteen hours in bed? I didn’t know, but I was sure willing to try.
Ani
I don’t remember taking the elevator. I do remember opening the door to a luxurious suite with a huge bed with lots of white puffy pillows and comforters and Adam immediately tackling me onto it.
We landed together, laughing in the twilight, the warm spring breeze drifting in from a sliding door that led to a small balcony.
I was trembling with anticipation. Then his lips were on mine, soft and warm and determined.
“Adam, I—”
“Yes?” His hair was mussed. Heat was in his eyes, all directed at me, which made my heart squeeze with pure joy. I reached up and pushed his hair back, ran my hand along his cheek, felt the roughness of his jaw. “Adam, I—I want you to know that I’m not always a chaos agent.”
He threw his head back, bursting out laughing. “A what?”
I’d clearly thrown him. “A chaos agent. You know, someone who’s always disruptive and unpredictable. This past year—”
His face held a bemused expression. But also a loving one. I mean, he hadn’t said I love you, but it was in his eyes. I felt it in his touch as he gently slid my curls out of my eyes.
He took a moment to really look at me. Under his perusal, I felt like he was seeing the best of me, a version that he thought I was, but I wasn’t quite sure I could live up to. Maybe that’s why I’d said what I said.
“Honey,” he said in his most roguish voice, “if you’re a chaos agent, you are that in the best way. You shook me awake and got me living again. I’ve never met anyone like you. I wouldn’t ever want you to change.”
Then he kissed me, and I lost myself in the feel of his mouth, the heat of his body so close to mine. “By the way,” he said as he lowered his head, “I’m not leaving this room until late checkout tomorrow. We’ll DoorDash something if there’s no room service.”
“I’m only hungry for one thing,” I said, and then covered my eyes and groaned. “That was so cliché.”
“Honey, nothing about this night is going to be cliché.”
He was fun and playful, and, oh, the man could kiss.
And he tasted wonderful. He took his time, slow, gentle, thorough kisses that made me forget all about…
well, everything. There was no baby monitor alerting us to every move, no sudden cry to rouse us out of a deep sleep, no dog snorting and dreaming of chasing small, helpless animals.
“I want to make love to you,” he said, pressing kisses to my neck, trailing downward.
Oh, thrill. My head was spinning, my heart pounding. But mostly, I was filled with the feeling that This. Was. It. He was where my journey ended. I would never love anyone like this. I’d found the one person who truly got me. Who accepted me for who I was. Who liked me for exactly that reason.
As he returned to my mouth, I yielded to his lips, ran my hands through the thick silk of his hair, felt his muscles bunch and tense as I ran my hands along his back. I kissed his forehead, the ridge of his brow, the curve of his cheek, memorizing every bit of him.
We luxuriated in a time together that wasn’t interrupted by…well, anything. Sort of like in Turks and Caicos, but a hundred times better.
As we both shattered to pieces, he was right there, kissing me, holding me, murmuring in my ear in soft tones how beautiful I was, how lucky he was to be here with me.
He took my hand and kissed it. Looked deeply into my eyes. Then he pulled me into his arms, and I settled next to him, my head on his chest, holding each other tight.
I love you was on the tip of my tongue. I was bursting to say it, but I restrained myself. I didn’t want to say it first and then have him feel like he had to say it back.
He loves me, I thought. And he loves Rosie. He would say it, in his own time.
That was just like me, to always want everything, expecting everything all at once, wanting things tied up in a nice, perfect bow. I couldn’t wait to tell him I loved him, yet I didn’t feel like I was being impulsive any longer. I felt this with a certainty I’d never experienced before.
Adam was kinder and more wonderful than anyone I’d ever met, and I felt certain that he was my future. I was head over heels.
I just hoped that he was too.