Page 100 of What if I Told You

His question makes me smile. I place my hands over his, rubbing them slowly up and down his arms. “Aww, you love me?” I tease, knowing all too well that we’ve always loved each other.

“Let me rephrase,” he says, huffing out a soft chuckle. “What if I told you sex with someone I’m so madly in love with I can’t think straight half the time, could be so fucking powerful that I can’t remember what my life was like before she got here?”

Oh.

Okay.

That’s a little different.

The owl needs a tree…

He’s not just saying he loves me.

He’s saying…

I go quiet for a moment replaying his words in my mind a few times as if they’re affirmations I’m forcing myself to remember. “You’re in love with me?”

“Ella, I’m so far gone I don’t even know what to do with myself anymore,” he tells me, grasping my hands in his. “I love you so damn much it hurts sometimes. Like, it physically hurts when you’re not with me. When I can’t see you. Or talk to you.”

I smirk playfully. “Well, when you put it that way it sounds more like an obsession.”

“Then I’m unapologetically obsessed with you,” he says, placing a kiss on the side of my face. “Since the day I watched you ride the escalator down the stairs at the airport wearing my old hockey sweater I knew something was different. I knew something had changed about the way I saw you. You were stunning and if I could’ve held you for hours that day right there in the airport I would have. Being near you makes me feel…whole.”

I don’t like that he’s saying all these wonderful things to me and I can’t see his face because of the way we’re sitting, so I stand up and step out of the tub. His eyes are on me the whole time and I’m certain he’s confused as to why I haven’t said much. Grabbing a towel, I wrap it around myself and then hold one open for him. With a curious smile on his face, he steps out of the tub and pulls the chain to let it drain and then allows me to cover him with the towel I have for him.

“Ella?”

Without responding, I take his hand and lead him into his bedroom where I tug open his towel, letting it fall to the floor, and gesture for him to have a seat on the edge of the bed. I drop my towel as well and then gently climb into his lap, wrapping my legs around his waist and my arms around his neck. His body, though still wet from our bath is warm and comfortable. I stare into his eyes for several long seconds, taking in the whole of this man, my best friend who makes me feel like the most loved woman on this planet.

He opens his mouth to speak but I stop him, bringing my finger to his lips. Then I cup his face in my hands, my fingers splaying over the scruff of trimmed beard, and press my lips to his. When I gently pull back his eyes are trying to read mine, so I smile and finally tell him,

“August Blackstone I couldn’t be more in love with another human being if I tried.”

The air leaves his lungs in one long sigh as if he’s been holding his breath this whole time. He closes his eyes for a second, but when I thread my fingers through his wet locks and smooth my thumb down his cheek he opens them again and gazes at me with an expression of pure joy. Pure love. Pure adoration.

“I knew I loved you before I ever got on that plane,” I tell him, my eyes never leaving his. “I’ve wanted you for years but we never went down that road and I wasn’t about to be the one to mess everything up between us. I was content to always be your best friend. But being here with you has been better than anything I could have ever imagined.”

His strong hands wrap around my ass. He pulls me as tightly against him as he can and feathers his hands down my back, causing goosebumps to appear on my skin.

“You make me feel safe. You make me feel like I can do literally anything I ever want to do. You make me whole, August.”

“I’m sorry, El,” he says. “I’m sorry I wasn’t strong enough to tell you soon?—"

“Neither of us was strong enough back then, Auggie.” I shake my head. “There is nobody to blame here and nothing to blame anyone for. We’re here now. Together. You and me.”

“Forever?” His brows raise and I see the hopeful glint in his eyes. Though there’s a flutter in my stomach, there’s also a lightness in my chest that makes my response so amazingly simple.

“Forever.”

“I love you, Ella.”

“I love you, Auggie.”

CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO

AUGUST

It’s the game I’ve been dreading all season.

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