Page 89 of It Must Be Love

The shock that fell around us was loud.

Amias kissed the side of my head. "I thought you knew. Naya and I are dating."

"Dating?" Kara barked. "You two?"

"I thought you couldn't stand her," Nolan quipped.

My eyes immediately hit the ground. I felt shame coursing through me. Had Amias said that to Nolan? God! We'd been safe in our cocoon, and now the world had come in. It would keep coming in. Amias' family wouldn't accept me…they would want someone like Ann with the right last name and pedigree. This would never last. I was so stupid to think it would. I should never have—.

"I'm in love with Naya," Amias said easily, and I raised my eyes to look at him. What was he doing announcing it to the whole world?

"Love?" Kara choked out.

"And she's in love with me. I'm one lucky son of a bitch," Amias continued like Kara wasn't ready to faint.

"I…I thought you were getting back with Ann," Kara muttered, giving me the stink eye. "Ann said that she'd talked to your mother, and you were getting back together. What is going on here?"

Amias shrugged. "Going on where?"

"You two," Nolan said incredulously.

"I just told you we're dating. We're in love, and I'm hoping when she's ready, she'll agree to marry me. If I ask her now, she'll probably knee me in the nuts. You know how she is, needs time to adjust."

Amias spoke almost cavalierly as if it was nothing when he knew that Nolan and Kara were just about ready to go into cardiac arrest.

"Does Ann know?" Kara demanded.

Amias sighed. "I have no idea what Ann knows. Anyway," he looked at his watch, "baby, we got to go."

"Where are you going?" Kara wanted to know.

"The movies," I told her as Amias and I hurried away. He had gotten tickets to watch the latest Mission Impossible despite the shitty reviews because I was a big MI fan.

"What was that?" I asked when we settled in the theatre with popcorn and sodas.

"What?"

"You know what."

He grinned. "It was an excellent way of sticking it to your brother and his wife, and letting you know where I'm at and not necessarily in that order."

"What do you mean where you're at?" I asked, shocked, my mouth hanging open.

"Close your mouth, darling," Amias said in good humor. "I want us to live together and get married, eventually. I'd like for you to move in with me as soon as you're ready."

I chewed the kernel of popcorn I'd put in my mouth.

"We've been seeing each other only for a few months."

"When you know, you know."

"That's a stupid line." I threw a popcorn at him even though my heart was singing happy tunes.

"Let's try this another way." Amias moved his mouth close to my ear in the way he knew made my panties wet. "Move in with me, Naya. I'd move into your place, but it's too fucking small."

We'd always been honest with one another, which was what I loved about being with Amias. "I'm not ready. I'm scared."

"I know."

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