MY HEART FELT like it was going to plop right out of my chest with the way he was looking at me.
“I missed you with every breath I took,” he said, his finger now under my chin, tipping my head up to meet his dark eyes. “I didn’t know what I was going to find when I came here. If you were going to belong to someone else. If I really had fucked up any chance by pushing you away.”
“I’ve always been yours,” I said softly, and he rolled me to my back, his body over mine.
“You can’t say shit like that to me when I’m in your bed.”
“Why not?”
“Because… it’s only ever been you, niña linda,” he said, and I stilled, taking in his words, the meaning making me curious but delightfully happy.
“No one else?”
“No one. And being this close to you, your soft body this fucking close to mine… My control is thread thin, Nina.” His forehead rested against mine. “I wanna do this right. When I take you, baby, and it’s just a matter of time, it’s because we’re on the same page and we decided we’re giving this thing between us another shot.”
“Just like that?”
“Just like that.”
“But—”
“No buts,” he cut me off, and I frowned. “I know you have a lot of questions. I have a couple of my own, but we can get through that shit in the morning.”
“You think one morning will get us on the same page?”
“I sure as fuck hope so.”
“I have to have lunch with my parents,” I said, not sure exactly why I wasn’t ready to close my eyes.
“That’s fine. My buddy Sam wants to go sightseeing,” he said, and I laughed.
“God, you make everything sound so easy. Like we can make this happen.”
“We will.” He quickly kissed the tip of my nose, rolled off me, and brought me back into the crook of his shoulder, his arm the comfiest pillow I’d ever had. Even so, I didn’t close my eyes. Not even when his hands moved to my hair, stroking my scalp and hair just right. Just the way he’d done before anytime we’d cuddled together. It had been his sure-fire way of getting me to fall asleep. But I couldn’t. I was exhausted, but I couldn’t close my eyes.
He sighed heavily and sat up, bringing me along with him, making me look up at him.
“What’s up?”
“What do you mean?”
“I can hear those wheels turning so loud I’m shocked your whole building isn’t awake.”
“Haha, funny.”
“Talk to me.” He cupped my face, and I bit my lower lip.
“Honest?”
“Always.”
“I’m scared,” I answered, making myself vulnerable, and despite the two years of being apart, I knew to my center that I was safe with him.
“Of?” His brows narrowed, concern filled his eyes.
“Of falling asleep and waking up and… and this you, here, talking about us… that it’s just a dream,” I voiced, feeling like such a weenie after saying it out loud.
“I’m real. We’re real.”
“But what if—”
“Shhh.” He kissed my forehead, and I inhaled slowly. “I’m not going anywhere. I fucking promise you. I’ll be here in the morning. I promise we will get it all solved by noon. You’ll go out with your family, and maybe if timing works, I can take you to dinner.”
“Dinner?”
“Second first date,” he stated, and my eyes went wide.
“Our second first date?” I repeated, raising a brow. He was freaking adorable. He might have been—or for all I knew, still was—a hot, badass Marine, but he had a marshmallow romantic center.
“Yes. But I have bad news for you.”
“What?”
“It’s gonna be both of our last first dates ever.”
“Is it now?”
“Hell yeah. I’m not stupid enough to make the same mistake twice. And, Nina, this time… you and I… it’s for keeps,” he laid out confidently, like an alpha male would in a romance novel, and I smiled so big I probably looked like a lunatic.
Lucky for me, Brandon Chu seemed to dig slightly crazy.
Brandon
She fell asleep first.
My hand in her hair. Her body curled up into me. My whole world righted and making sense. Everything I was and everything I’d been through to get to this point, was for this very moment. This time when I fell asleep, I drifted off with a huge weight off my shoulders and a content heart.
