Sweet (Landry Family 6)

I take a deep, shaky breath and blow it out. It does nothing to slow my racing heart.

“I’m not asking you to marry me—”

“Good.” She says it so quickly that it catches her off guard too. “I didn’t mean it like that.”

“It’s fine. I’m not ready for that either. Obviously.” I shift my weight around. “But I am asking you what kind of box you’re going to put us in.”

She bites her lip. “I don’t know, Nate. I honestly didn’t expect this to happen. It’s not like I’ve been sitting around thinking about it.”

That’s what I was afraid of.

I eat the chip I’ve been holding forever to give myself a second to get my thoughts together. But it doesn’t take too long because I still feel the way I felt when we were in the living room—only more.

“We don’t have to call it forever,” I say, thinking back to what she’s told me before. “I’m not asking for a lifetime commitment over here. But I am saying that I want you. All of you. Especially now.”

She almost smiles.

“And I can’t see some other guy hitting on you or thinking you’re seeing someone on the side. I’m gonna worry about you when I’m not with you, and I’m going to need to make sure you’re safe. It’s just how I operate. I’m hardwired that way.”

She touches my hand. “I know that. I see you do that with the people you love every day. It’s one of the things I adore about you.”

I lean over and kiss her.

“If you don’t want that from me, I understand,” I say, reiterating what I told her earlier. “I won’t like it, but it’s your choice, and I respect that. I spent hours today thinking about us. Trying to get my head on straight. And the conclusion I came to was this, Paige. I adore you.”

She bites her lip and waits for me to continue.

“I have for a while now. I love our friendship, our flirting, even, it seems, our fighting. As long as it ends like it did today.” I smile. “But if you’re not feeling it, seeing that there could be something here for us, tell me. I’ll get you a room somewhere, and we’ll figure a work schedule out so we avoid each other, but I can’t be around you if you’re not mine. It will drive me insane.”

She stills. She doesn’t say a word.

My mind races, overanalyzing the situation. What does her posture mean? What is the look in her eyes telling me? Which way is she leaning?

“I won’t chase you,” I say. “I’m not going to be some creep who follows you around, and you can still call me if you’re in trouble. I’ll always be there for you like that. No matter what.”

She scrambles around until she’s sitting upright. A small smile touches her lips. It’s one I can’t read.

My heart thunders, beating so hard and so loud that I’m surprised I can’t hear it.

“Before I answer you, I want to have a conversation,” she says.

I sigh. “About what?”

“How many times a day can you do … that?”

What is she talking about? I open my mouth to ask her what she means when a slow smile stretches from ear to ear.

“Do you mean how many times a day can we have sex?” I ask her, my brows lifting to the ceiling.

“Yup.”

I chuckle as my ego expands. “As many as you want.”

“Really?”

“Really.”

She moves across the bed until she’s straddling me. The only thing between us is the thin fabric of my boxers. She pushes down against my cock, and my balls tighten immediately.

I grab her hips and hold her in place because if she moves, this conversation will probably be paused. Which is most likely what she wants.

Her head falls to the side, bringing all of her wild, unruly hair to her right shoulder. Her neck is exposed, and I want to bury my face in the bend and place kisses across her shoulder blade.

But I don’t.

Instead, I peer into her beautiful golden-brown eyes.

I’m done. I’m fucked. I’ve fallen for this girl. Am I in love with her? I don’t know. But do I ever want to lose her? No.

I can’t say that. I don’t trust her not to dart away.

“What about Ryder?” she asks.

“He likes you, and you’re already here. He knows we’re friends. Maybe we keep a lid on things in front of him for a while until we’re sure we’re a thing.”

Until you’re sure because I already know we are.

She bites her lip. “I don’t see how things have changed any from the other night. You told me yourself—you want forever, and I’m running from it. I mean, it’s a step in the right direction for me in that I picked you and not some asshole. But I’m going to be honest. I’m not ready for some kind of long-term commitment. And I have this habit of just kind of imploding things when I get scared, and thinking about forever scares the hell out of me. It feels like a setup for failure. Like, just having this conversation with you has me thinking about what it would feel like for you to never want to see me again, and my heart is racing.”