Page 57 of Sweetest Hate

"It wasn't a mistake," I interrupted. "I'm sorry I ever said that. Things were complicated, but I just never should have said that."

Arsen's eyes blazed with intensity. "I'm sorry, too, for the way I acted. It's all I've thought about over the last few days. What if you didn't want me back. If I came here and you wanted nothing to do with me. I kept thinking, wondering if the time we had together was it; how I wished more of it had been spent watching you paint, laughing instead of glaring at me all the time—which I deserved. I thought if I could just win you back, how I'd spend forever making sure you smiled more. That I was the reason you were happy. I fucked up by leaving and letting my insecurities rule my actions. You were there, so close I could see a future that included nights under the stars and days on the water. But I just couldn't get my head to stop the cycle of doubt, that you were out of my reach." His nostrils flared. "Are you? Are you always going to be just outside of my grasp?" He swallowed audibly. "Because I love you, little mouse. I'll do whatever it takes."

"Arsen…" I didn't know what to say. My heart had picked up a chaotic rhythm, and I was having a hard time catching my breath. Arsen loved me?

Squaring his shoulders, he blew out an unsteady breath. "You should know I've come prepared to be very stubborn about this. I spent yesterday looking for a job and landed one at a shop around the corner. I signed a lease on an apartment just down the street. I'm not going anywhere, little mouse. I'll wait. Forever if I have to."

Arsen wouldn't have to wait long. He'd turned down a job, created a life here in Atlanta, and then tracked me down at work. He was pouring out his heart and peeling back the last of the layers that had kept me from seeing the truth behind his stony gaze. The least I could do was tell him it wasn't one-sided. Far from it. "Arsen—"

"I have plans, and you are a big part of them. If you could give me just one chance, I promise—"

"Arsen!" I shouted while laughing. "Shut up. I get it. You've come prepared to stalk me to the ends of the earth until I cave to your demands for us to be together." He paused, and just when he appeared to be ready to start talking again, I reached up, circling my arms around his neck. "I love you too."

He froze, as in no parts of his body moved, not even his chest for simple things like breathing.

I cocked a brow. "All that talking, and now you don't have anything to say? Bad timing right after someone says they love you." I had been joking, but Arsen's breath rushed from his lungs.

Arsen studied me so intently, it would have been impossible to walk away from him. As if I'd ever stood a chance of that anyway.

"Say it again," he whispered.

Weaving my fingers through his hair the shade of obsidian, I tugged him down. He came willingly until our bodies were almost touching, and lips a hair's breadth apart. "I love you, Arsen Scott. You have been a serious pain in my ass at times, but I'm honestly not sure if I could go back to something so mundane as my life without you in it. It's the same for me, you know? There will never be anotheryou. You lit a fire in me I'd never known was possible. To go from that—the all-consuming rush from just being near you—to simply existing?" I shook my head as it really hit home how much my life would have changed if he'd taken that job. "I love you." I shrugged and offered a small smile. It really was that simple.

Gnawing on his lips, he stared down at me. "So, what do we do now?"

I glanced behind him, catching sight of his car parked along the sidewalk. I hadn't even noticed it when I'd walked outside. "You go home and catch some sleep. I finish my shift at work. And then"—I shrugged—"we figure the rest out. As long as you're in my life, everything else is just details."

"Important details." His eyebrows scrunched tight. "I have an extra key, and there's plenty of closet room. I think you'd like the view. I got a unit on the sixteenth floor so you could see the sunset if you wanted to paint."

I barked a laugh. "You really thought everything through."

He flashed me a tired smile. "You have no idea."

"So, this extra key and closet space, are you saying I can come and go?" My mind was still spinning with the sudden shift in how my future could play out.

Arsen frowned. "I was thinking more like you'd use it every day when you left in the mornings and came home at night."

I stilled. "You want to move in together?"

"Yes." The word was so casual that I knew he meant it and my breaths stuttered.

"You sure?" I asked in a choked voice.

He scoffed and then he gave me a grin, crooked and wicked, as he lowered his voice to a whisper, "I've never been so sure. I want you in my bed every night. I want you beneath me as you make those sounds that drive me crazy. Yes, little mouse. I'm sure."

I sucked on my bottom lip as I replayed every moment from the time I stepped out of the store. In a short span of mere minutes everything had changed, and I was stupid happy. "Did any part of your plan include kissing me? I think that's supposed to happen."

"Are you saying yes?" he asked and I wondered how he could think otherwise.

"I'm definitely saying yes."

Arsen let out a ragged breath. "Okay, yeah. Then this is where I kiss you."

Arsen moved so fast, backing me against the brick wall, that I didn't have time to register what he was doing until he brought his mouth down on mine. His full lips worshiped mine as he wove his fingers through my hair. Passersby whistled, but I didn't care. All I could think, touch, taste, and see was Arsen. I'd almost lost this. Instead, I was being handed a promise of so much more. I kissed him back, pouring every ounce of love I had for the moody bastard into each touch of his mouth on mine.

When he pulled back, I chased his lips, and he chuckled. "Maybe we should save some things for later."

I sighed as if I was really put out about it, and truthfully, I kind of was. "Fine. Text me the address of our new place, and I'll head there after work."

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