Page 80 of Falling

“What I just got out of was a mistake that I’m so relieved didn’t go beyond what it did, and what I’m feeling is unlike anything I’ve ever felt before. It might be crazy, but if it is, I want to fall back into it and let it carry me away.” I lift myhands in the air and my words feel like a proclamation, sealing this moment.

His hands circle my waist and he lifts me, turning me around and around as he kisses me.

A few hours after he’s worshipped my body, and I’ve worshipped his, I’m limp from the workout and orgasm-drugged, but still too excited to sleep. We’ve talked nonstop and there’s still so much more to know about him. He wants to know everything about me, things I’m sure would bore anyone else. And just as we start to fall asleep, he traces his fingers down my body or I kiss his chest or we kiss until our lips are puffy, and it’s like coming home each time our bodies sink into each other.

This is love.

And I didn’t know I could find happiness like this.

CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR

MORNING REFLECTIONS

CALLUM

The sun is bright when I wake up the next morning, something that I’m not used to. I glance at the clock next to the bed, and it’s later than I usually sleep, but still early.

Ruby’s head is on my chest, her leg wrapped around my thigh, and it’s the best feeling in the world. We didn’t get much sleep last night and haven’t since we started sleeping together, but I have no regrets. Worth every ounce of fatigue, one hundredpercent.

Once my family got over their shock of me professing my feelings for Ruby yesterday—okay, they never really got over it, they just mixed it up a bit by also teasing me about being the thirst trap lumberjack, whatever the hell that means. While we were eating, Marlow got a text from someone at work who sent a picture of a group of girls standing on the corner of Heritage Lane. When the phone was finally passed to me, I didn’t get what everyone was laughing about at first. But when I zoomed in, I saw the sign they were holding had a picture of me, and in block letters, it said, “Get your sexy ax over here, lumberjack!”

While I find it bizarre, something like this would have annoyed me before. I value my privacy and attention is not something I ever go looking for, but when Ruby pulled up her website and saw that she’d sold another two hundred shirts, all I felt was proud of her. She warned me, after another round of apologies, that it could get crazier, but I don’t care.

I’d do anything for her.

I love her. She doesn’t know that I’ve never said those words to anyone but my family. I’m fucking thirty-two and it’s taken me this long to feel anything close to this.

She sighs in her sleep and I wrap my arms around her tighter as she stirs. She nestles deeper into my neck and I close my eyes and eventually fall back into a blissful sleep.

The smell of bacon wakes me up and when I open my eyes, the bed is empty. Holy hell, it’s ten o’clock.Who am I?I take a three-minute shower, eager to get downstairs and see what Ruby is up to. When I round the corner, she’s in the kitchen, already ready for the day and humming as she flips pancakes. She grins when she sees me.

“Mornin’, sleepyhead,” she says.

“You’re the prettiest thing I’ve ever seen,” I rasp, my voice still not awake.

Her cheeks lift as her smile grows. “Look in the mirror, lumberjack, you’re the pretty one,” she teases. “You hungry? You showed up right on time.”

“I’m hungry.” I round the island and stand behind her, my hands on her hips.

When I kiss her neck, she turns and faces me, leaning up to kiss me. I’m ready to feast on her when she breaks the kiss and turns to grab the plate piled high with pancakes.

“Let’s get you fed. You must be exhausted with all that exertion you put out last night,” she says, smirking.

“Is that what we’re calling it? Exertion?”

As she turns to carry the food to the table, I squeeze her ass and she shakes it side to side.

I groan, blood thrumming to my dick. “If you want to eat those pancakes anytime soon, you better get that ass over there and sit down.”

She smirks at me over her shoulder. “We’re on vacation, we can do whatever we want.”

I smack her ass and she squeals, laughing as she moves toward the table.

“Did you see the view yet?” she asks.

“Yep. Haven’t taken my eyes off you.”

Her eyes are shining so bright it makes my chest ache.

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