“This is so much better than I imagined it.”
“Thanks.” Seth smirks.
“Hey, now.” Mark laughs. “You’re not exactly a one-man show.”
“You can’t help but follow in the footsteps of my awesome.”
“Someone better call his wife,” I tease. “Looks like she’s going to need help getting his inflated ego through the door.”
“Laney, you wound me.” He places his hand over his heart as if his chest is hurting.
“I was actually getting ready to call you,” Ridge says. “We’re done here. We have to clean up, but the final step is flooring. We’re starting on that Monday. We should be out of your hair next week.”
“I can’t believe it’s done.”
“You decide what you’re going to do with it yet?” Tyler asks.
I look up at Kent, who is standing next to me with his arm around my shoulders. “Are we living here or somewhere else?” The words seem to shock him, and in a way, they do me as well. I guess my talk with Georgia did more than I thought. I want to be with him. I don’t need an explanation or an excuse.
He recovers from my question and bends to press his lips to mine. “I’m wherever you and Kendrix are.”
“Can you see yourself living here?”
“Yes,” Ridge, Tyler, Mark, and Seth answer for him.
“Hell yes,” Gordon adds.
“Papaw!” Kendrix scolds him.
“Sorry, princess. Papaw was just excited.”
“Bad wowds.”
“I know. I’ll do better.” He kneels down and opens his arms, and she doesn’t hesitate to go to him.
“Out of all the men in this room, you were the last one I thought I had to worry about washing your mouth out with soap,” Georgia teases.
“Ew.” Kendrix scrunches up her nose, making us all laugh.
“Well, it looks like we’re moving in,” I say with excitement that I don’t bother to hide.
“Excuse us,” Kent says, then lifts me into his arms and carries me down the hall to the bedroom. Laughter follows us down the hall. When we’re in the bedroom, he sets me on my feet. All the furniture in the room is pushed to the middle, which allowed them to add a fresh coat of paint. “What was that?”
“What?” I’m being coy and we both know it.
“That.” He points toward the kitchen. “Us, moving in here. Tell me what that means, Laney.”
“Well, usually when a man and a woman love each other, they do this kind of thing.” I don’t realize what I’ve said until the words leave my mouth. Not that I regret them. I just didn’t expect to tell him like this.
“What did you just say?”
“That couples do this type of thing all the time.”
“Laney.” His voice is playful yet warning at the same time.
“Oh, you mean the when a man and a woman love each other? That part?”
“That’s the one. I need you to tell me straight up.”
“I love you, Kenton Baldwin. I might not have our memories, but my heart does.” I repeat his mother’s words from earlier. She said it beautifully.
“Take off your jeans,” he says, walking backward toward the door. When he reaches it, he flicks the lock.
“What? We can’t do that… here. Our daughter and your parents, and your friends are just down the hall.”
“Our daughter will be kept occupied by your future in-laws and our friends. And you, my love, will just have to be quiet. Strip.”
“So I tell you I love you, and you think you can boss me around?” There is no heat in my words.
“I think that you’re my future wife and that I need to be inside you. Right. Now.”
“So we skipped girlfriend. Because from what you’ve told me, we never had that title.”
“Because you were always more than that. Strip.”
“So this future wife business, let’s talk about that.”
“We will. But first.” He unzips his jeans, pulling them and his underwear down, letting them pool at his knees. He takes his hard cock in his hand and strokes. “I need to be inside you, Laney. Now.”
“What if I’m not quiet?”
“They’ll distract her.”
“What about them?”
He throws his head back and laughs. “They know we’re sleeping together.”
“You don’t know that.”
“I do know that.” He closes his eyes as he strokes himself. “Laney, they know I love you. They know you’re my forever. They know that even though the odds were stacked against us, we made our way back to each other. They also know I’m not an idiot. They know I crave to be a part of you.”
“H-How do they know that?” His words are turning me on, and suddenly this little game to get him riled up has turned on me, and I’m ready for him. That’s why I’m unbuttoning my jeans and sliding them and my panties off, kicking them aside.
“Because they know I love you.”
“What are you waiting for?” His eyes pop open, and the dark brown orbs are full of desire. I take one step, then another, then another until I’m standing so close our bodies are touching.