At last she found her voice. “I don’t want to wait, either. So — yes. Yes. It’s crazy, but yes.”
That flashing smile she loved so much lit up his face, and he slid the ring onto her finger. It fit exactly right. And that was how she felt about Alex…he fit exactly right.
He pulled her toward him, and she was kissing him, and then they were on the rug and their clothes were being flung this way and that, and his mouth was on her, his fingers stroking her, and at last he was inside her, and she knew this was the most perfect thing in the world, being with Alex, knowing he loved her and would always, always make sure she was safe.
Afterward, once they’d gotten themselves more or less pulled together, they settled back down on the couch, Caitlin with her head on Alex’s shoulder. She knew she should call her parents to tell them the news, but she wanted to work out a few more things first.
“What about school?”
“Transfer to U of A. It might be a little hard this late in the game, but my clan has a few people who work there. I’m sure some strings can get pulled so you can still start in the fall.”
The McAllisters weren’t all that good at string-pulling, so she’d have to take his word for it. But the University of Arizona was an excellent school, and most of her coursework should transfer straight over, since both universities were part of the same system. And if she ended up having to take an extra semester to get caught up, well, it wouldn’t be the end of the world. After all, she’d be living with Alex. That would make everything a lot easier.
But still, her conscience pricked at her. She’d just come to terms with being the McAllister seer, and now she was going to pack up and go off to de la Paz territory?
“The clan elders won’t be happy about their seer going to live outside McAllister lands,” she said. “I mean, I’ve just started really functioning as a seer, and now I’m going to bail completely?”
Alex lifted an eyebrow at her. “You’re going to Tucson, not Siberia. And this is the twenty-first century. Haven’t your clan elders heard of Skype? Facetime? Email? I don’t know, a telephone?”
She stuck her tongue out at him, and he laughed.
“Now you’re just teasing me.”
“Maybe I am, a little,” he admitted. “But you brought it on yourself.”
That could be true. But she had one last question to ask. “What about a job?” she asked.
“What about it?”
“I won’t feel right, freeloading off you.”
At that remark, he pulled away slightly and gave her a very direct look. “First of all, Caitlin, I wouldn’t call going to college full-time exactly freeloading. Besides, I thought you said your book sales were picking up.”
“They are,” she admitted. It wasn’t as if she was going to hit the New York Times bestseller list anytime soon, but her monthly earnings had inched past fifteen hundred dollars or so.
“Well, then,” he said, as if that covered everything. “It’s not like I need you to help me with a house payment or anything, and if you’re earning your own money, then you’ll be able to buy the little things you need for school and whatever. Isn’t that enough?”
She watched him carefully for a few seconds. He was telling the truth. All he wanted was her with him. Nothing else. No strings.
“I love you, Alex Trujillo,” she said.
Another of those blazing smiles. “That’s the first time you’ve told me that.”
No, that couldn’t be right. But she reflected on the time they’d spent together and everything they’d talked about, and she realized she never had said those three important words aloud. She’d thought them plenty of times but never quite got the nerve to say “I love you” to Alex, always telling herself that it was too soon, that they needed more time together. A silly notion, really, to believe that you had to spend a set amount of time with someone before you could take that next step. She’d known almost from the beginning that there couldn’t be anyone except Alex, that through all the fear and terror and worry, he’d been there for her, the one person, the one true match to her soul, that she’d thought she would never find.
Taking his hand, she pressed it against her cheek. “Well, I do love you.”
“Oh, I know. And I love you, too. I think I was in love with you from the moment you collapsed in my arms in the store.” She gave him a disbelieving look, and he went on, “It’s true. I didn’t know who you were or what kind of trouble you were in, but I was…drawn to you, I guess. And even though I knew I had other things I should be focusing on during that whole nightmare, I couldn’t stop thinking about you. About being with you.”