Page 60 of Risking it All

He hummed, stretching his hand between us and leaving it palm up for me to take. After a second of surprised hesitation, I did. Eating with my nondominant hand was weird, but the warm smile he leveled on me was worth it.

Halfway through the meal, he broke the silence by clearing his throat. “I want to go out with your parents again.”

I froze, my fork partway to my mouth, and stopped in midair. “You do?” I asked, my tone every ounce as bewildered as I felt.

He nodded, setting down his glass to rub his hand through his hair.

“Yeah. I didn’t handle any of that dinner very well. I don’t want you or your parents thinking I’m going to run away screaming anytime someone mentions kids, and the only way to fix that is by showing them I'm serious.”

I appreciated the thought behind it, but…

“Dad is going to grill you again,” I said, and he sighed.

“I’m already expecting it. Before he dug into the topic of babies, I thought we were doing alright. Now, if he tries that again, I can give him the honest answer, which is that neither of us is currently ready for it. Like you said before, it’ll be a joint decision, so it’s not like it’ll be sprung on me.”

I nodded, squeezing his hand. “That’s right, but why do you want to do this? I would have thought the first dinner was enough of a disaster to make you never want to try it again. At least not for a long while.”

He gestured to a picture on the wall, one of my family, and he said, “You guys are all close. It’d cause a lot of strain on you if your parents didn't like me, and I want them to trust that I’m not going to hurt you.” Then he grimaced. “And I know for a fact that the way I acted before made you doubt that I’d stay. I want to prove to you how serious I am about us.”

I couldn’t disagree with that, no matter how much I wanted to, so instead I said nothing and let him continue.

“I want you to trust that I’m not going anywhere, and this will be a good way to at least start showing that. It’s going to take me some time to get used to talking to you when I have an issue. This is how I’ve been for a long time now, and habits are hard to break, but if you’ll be patient with me, I think we can manage it.”

Wow, I hadn’t seen any of this coming when I’d left. Swallowing around my dry throat, I asked. “Where did this come from? Not that I mind it, but it feels out of the blue.”

At that he snorted, rolling his eyes. “Your brother knocked sense into me, as always. He told me that the whole ‘running away from a topic’ thing would eventually make you leave me, and I don’t want that. If my options are having you and adjusting to actually talking about stuff, or not having you and staying in my comfort zone, then I’ll choose the former every time.”

With that, my heart turned to goo.

I really needed to hug Devin the next time I saw him or make his favorite dinner. Putting that to the side for now, I nodded.

“I would have. It’d hurt every step of the way, but having a relationship without communication just doesn’t work. As long as you’re willing to try though, then so am I. That’s all I can really ask of you.”

This was honestly more than I’d expected out of this conversation, and I was over the moon that it’d gone so well. Especially since I didn’t even have to prompt it.

He smiled again, going back to eating now that the topic was finished. I took the opportunity to just look at him.

After the past few days of doubt and uncertainty, seeing him calm and at ease was nice. The air of ‘nervous rabbit about to bolt’ was gone, and he was back to being the William I knew.

He’d changed out of his pajamas at some point while I was gone and into a nice button-up shirt. It was all but painted on, accenting every dip and hollow, practically daring me to stare.

He caught my eyes and smiled, a touch of satisfaction coloring his face. “I may or may not have planned to seduce you as well, but if you’d prefer to just make it a movie night, I’ll be happy with that, too.” He shrugged, as if it didn’t matter to him one way or the other, and I knew instantly what my decision would be.

Standing up, I breezed around the table and sat across his lap, his arm settling around my waist to stop me from sliding backward. Curling an arm up and around his neck, I kissed his throat and said.

“Who says I won’t be the one seducing you?”

He sucked in a breath, grip tightening on my side. When he spoke, the words came out rougher, the sound rubbing against all the right places.

“I’m completely at your mercy then. What do you want to do?”

I bit my lip, fighting the urge to look away from him as I answered. “I was actually considering trying for the full thing, if you feel up to it?”

Honestly, I’d wanted to bring this up before the disastrous dinner, but things were tense and uncertain…

But now they weren’t. Will was willing to work with me on the whole ‘talking’ thing and without that hurdle, the urge to feel him twined with me was back in force.

He froze, eyes flashing a hair wider before he swallowed hard.

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