Page 34 of Weathering the Storm of the Century

“Because I pay attention to the things that matter to me, Aelix,” I answered honestly.

“How can you possibly know that I do my best not to spend my money on lingerie?” Those stunning eyes of hers regarded me carefully. “The other stuff, I’ll give you. However, how could you possibly know about my spending habits?”

“Because whenever I’ve been fortunate enough to stop by after you’ve been shopping, I’ve noticed the tags are always sale tags,” I explained. “Which is completely unnecessary.”

“Why?”

“Baby, you in lingerie is like viewing a miracle of nature,” I chuckled wickedly. “I’ll hand over my black card right now, so that you can clean out Vibes right the fuck now.”

“You’re bribing me with lingerie?” she deadpanned.

“No,” I corrected. “I’m just telling you that I have no problem with you spending my entire fortune on sexy lingerie, so long as I’m the only man that gets to see you in it.”

Aelix let out another sigh. “Cotter-”

I reached for her, cutting her off. “I deserve a chance, Aelix.”

“Do you even have time for a girlfriend?” she asked, already knowing the answer.

“No,” I answered, never having lied to her before. “But I can make time.”

“Cotter-”

“I deserve a chance,” I repeated. “While you can probably expect a million cancelled dates in our future, going home to you each night should fix some of that.”

Her eyes immediately narrowed, but she didn’t push my hands away when I squeezed her hips. “That sounds a lot like you just moved us in together, Cotter.”

“That’s because I did,” I informed her. “We’ve been together long enough.”

“But we haven’t,” she argued. “That’s the entire point.”

“The way that I’ve handled these past two years doesn’t mean that I don’t deserve the chance to take you to dinner, Aelix,” I said, repeating my point since it was the only one that I had. “Complete transparency, remember?”

“So, what’s the story?” she asked. “Have we always been seeing each other?” I opened my mouth to reply, but she stopped me with a pointed look. “You’re Cotter Moore. People are going to be interested, even if it is none of their business.”

“Fine,” I conceded. “Then we’ve been dating for a couple of years already, but we chose to safeguard our privacy because people don’t know how to mind their own goddamn business.”

Aelix let out another deep breath. “Okay…okay,” she finally said. “We can do this, but on one condition.”

“What?”

“That we stick with our complete transparency rule,” she said. “The second that this doesn’t work for either of us anymore, we say something.”

Yeah, that wasn’t going to happen.

“Aelix, I’m not going into this entertaining the possibility of us not working out,” I informed her. “While I have no problem with complete transparency, arguments, cancelled dates, or whatever else happens in relationships will not end up in a breakup for us.” Her face softened again. “We will make this work, no matter what, Aelix.”

“Yeah, that doesn’t work for me, Cotter,” she huffed. “No matter what doesn’t include cheating on my end. I’m not that forgiving of a human being.”

I peered down at her. “I’ll kill any man that dares to touch you, Aelix.” She arched a brow, looking unimpressed. “And if you were enough for me when we were just sleeping together, then you better believe that you’re more than enough now that we’re serious.” I reached up, tucking a rogue strand of dark hair behind her ear. “Baby, you can’t imagine how much I don’t want anyone but you.”

“So…we’re really doing this, huh?”

I nodded. “Yeah, we’re really doing this.”

Aelix’s arms slid up my chest, and when she anchored her hands around my neck, I felt like I could finally breathe again after that fucked-up text that she’d sent earlier. I had her back, only things were going to be better this time around. While I was certain to fuck this up from time to time, I always had Phin and Cutter to call in the event that I needed advice. After all, they fucked up all the damn time.

Seeing no need to go slow, I said, “We’re moving you in this weekend, then I’m buying a ring.”

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