“Promise me something,” he said softly, his eyes darkening with lust as we drank each other in.
“Anything,” I whispered, knowing it didn’t matter what he asked me because of course I would do it for him.
“When we get back home at the end of June, we’ll move into this room.”
The flutters that were always in my belly were suddenly out of control as I realized the implications of his request. Not only did it mean that he wanted me to continue living with him, but it also meant that he wanted to share his bed with me. This trip was going to mark a huge transition in our relationship, and he wanted to start living together like a couple in love when we returned home. We would no longer be two people sharing a bed in the guest room for comfort. We’d be two people sharing a bed in the master bedroom because we were in a serious and committed relationship.
And for someone who was afraid to get close to people, I knew what an enormous step it was for him to ask me that.
“I would love that,” I said. “And I love you.”
It was the moment when I said it that I realized he hadn’t said it to me since before “The Scandal,” that one night when we lay in bed together when we knew that we would need to separate the next day. It was the one and only time he had ever said the words to me, and I realized that I hadn’t said it to him, either, since that night.
He just stared up at me for a moment, and then he sat up with me still on top of him and pulled my head to his, our lips meeting for another one of those ridiculously hot kisses.
He pulled back and leaned his forehead to mine. “I love you, too, V,” he whispered, and then he pressed his lips to mine twice in that sexy way he had, somehow making me even hotter for him than I already was.
The next morning, I sat at the kitchen table with a cup of coffee and watched as Jesse moved gracefully around the kitchen. As refreshed as I felt after a good night’s sleep in Jesse’s arms, I was miserable. I didn’t want him to go, but I wasn’t going to stand in the way of the vacation he’d planned months earlier, so I masked my misery with a smile while he poured himself a bowl of cereal.
“Want some?” he asked, shaking the cereal box in my direction.
I shook my head. I wasn’t hungry yet; I was still half asleep, and I was probably going to crawl back into bed after he left to get my sleep count up to ten or twelve hours, but I didn’t want to miss out on the few precious minutes I had with Jesse before he left.
He sat at the table next to me instead of across from me.
“So what are your plans for the next two weeks?” he asked, shoving a spoonful of Cheerios into his mouth as his knee came to a rest against mine.
I shrugged. “A lot of sleeping since I’ve been sleep deprived for the past two months. Moving the rest of my shit out of the house I share with Richard. That kind of stuff.”
“You should probably do a lot of stretching,” he said with a smile.
“Why’s that?”
“Let’s just say that I’ve got some plans for you, and the more stretching you do now, the less sore you’ll be when I’m done with you.”
My jaw dropped as the ever-present flutters morphed into full-on quivers, and he grinned wickedly.
“You might have a hard time walking for a few days,” he continued.
I closed my mouth and swallowed loudly. After I cleared my throat, I said, “May I ask what, exactly, you have planned?”
He leaned in close to my ear. He brushed his lips on the sensitive skin of my neck, causing my entire body to prickle with goose bumps that sent a shiver down my spine. “First I’m going to make love to you like I’ve wanted to since the moment I first realized that I am in love with you,” he said, his voice soft and breathy against my ear.
“And when was that?” I asked, trying to control my lust.
He leaned back and looked at me. “The night we made chicken marsala together,” he said, and then he took a bite of cereal.
My heart melted as I remembered him standing in the kitchen, seemingly conflicted about something. Now I knew that the weight that he felt because of Allison and Carly had been pressing down on him as he worked through his fear of getting close to me.
“Oh, Jesse,” I said, feeling tears form behind my eyes.
He winked at me. “Back to my plans for you,” he said, leaning back in toward my ear. “I’ll be gentle the first time. I’ll take my time, savoring and kissing every single inch of your perfect body that I’ve already had the pleasure of seeing fully naked.”
My breath caught in my throat as his soft, sensual words warmed me from the inside out.
“Then what?” I asked, my voice cracking like an adolescent going through puberty.