Page 76 of Burn With Me

This kiss is full of words that neither of us is ready to say out loud yet.

As her tongue rolls with mine, I want to rip her clothes off and lay her out right here on the couch. I’ve never wanted to kiss someone as much as I want to kiss Amelia all the time.

I’m so addicted to this woman, and she has no idea.

I pull back, and her eyes are wide, shining with happiness. It breaks my heart that no one has shown her this kind of love before, but it also makes me so happy that I’m the one who gets to show her how she deserves to be treated.

I want to tell her I love her, but she isn’t ready, so instead, I say, “Stop distracting me. I need to pack our lunches for tomorrow and take the garbage out while you get Penny ready for our evening walk. Also, it’s your admin night for the farm. So, while I’m packing our lunches, you need to march your pretty ass to the office and get some of it done, before we can go on our walk. When we get back, I’ll work on my investigation board while you finish your stuff for the week.”

With one last hard kiss, I stand and head back to the kitchen to start prepping what I’ll need for our lunches before we go through our nighttime routine.

Thirty-Two

Luke

Amelia finishes her breakfast, and I grab her plate to put in the dishwasher. “Hurry and get the animals ready. You’re meeting Wayne at the farm today to go over the progress and the next stages. You have to be out the door in the next”—I look at my watch—“ten minutes.”

“Holy shit! I totally forgot about that.” She has a panicked look in her eyes as she gets up from the stool.

“It’s okay, you’ll get there on time,” I tell her and kiss her forehead and then smack her ass.

She shoots me a smirk over her shoulder as she walks away to get Penny and Ginny ready to go. I walk over to the fridge, grab the lunch I packed her last night, and set it in her backpack.

“I don’t know what I would do without you,” she says, getting on her tiptoes to kiss me.

My hand goes to her waist, and I pull her closer to deepen the kiss.

I pull away and put my forehead to hers. “You would do just fine. You did before me. Now go before I make you late, sweetness.” I give her a quick, hard kiss goodbye.

Love you. It almost slips out like it’s second nature, but I hold back.

“Okay, I’ll text you, and thanks for lunch if I forget to text you when I’m eating.” She turns and walks out the door, Ginny on her shoulder and Penny walking right by her side.

I walk back to the kitchen to finish up the dishes with a smile on my face because, after several weeks of living with Am, I continue to learn what makes her tick, and it all makes me love her more.

Not that I’ve told her that, but soon.

Things like she can’t shower in the morning because she’ll fall back asleep, she hates cooking if it’s just for her, she hates doing laundry, and she’ll clean every other room in the house before touching our room.

One thing she does more than anything else is how she hyper-focuses on one specific task until it’s done. Which I knew about with her ADHD, but experiencing it firsthand has been a learning curve. Not a bad one, but a learning curve nonetheless.

Between the crazy pH levels for the farm and working with the labs and the professor from the university to get to the bottom of it, she’s focused on little else. When I suggest we do something, she wants to, but by the end of the workday, she’s so tired that we’ve been unwinding with video games instead of going out and doing something. I never thought I’d find a partner who would not only want to play video games with me but actually enjoy it.

To be honest, it’s been perfect, but she needs a night off, and she needs her friends.

So the first task for the day is to plan a girls’ night for her . . . Well, not plan one, but text Pam and have her plan it.

She hasn’t been out with the girls since the guys and I had to go pick them up, and I know she needs this more than us getting out of the house.

The next thing I want to do is plan a date night, but I want it to be unique and special. The one thing I’ve learned from my parents is that no matter what stage in the relationship you’re in, you never stop dating.

Amelia and I have moved at an unconventional pace, but I want her to know I’m here because I want to be and not because I have to be.

First things first, I need to text Pam.

I wipe my hands and check that the back door is locked before grabbing my keys and work bag to head to the firehouse.

Throwing everything in my truck, I hop in, and my phone rings. Without looking, I answer as I start the truck and jump when my mom’s voice comes through the speakers.

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