Page 77 of Just Enough

“It’s going to be a lot worse,” she finished for me. “I know.”

“Emily.”

“Hmm.”

“I love you.”

She leaned away from my chest to look up at me again. “What kind of love is your ‘I love you’?”

Like she had to ask. “I’minlove with you. I’ve always been in love with you. Sometimes that love would be overwhelming and sometimes it’d shrunk enough to fixate on another for a while…but only for a while because I began to realize each time my feelings for you resurfaced, they were stronger than before.”

“I’ve always loved you too…but this that I feel now, it’s not the same kind of love. This…with you, is like nothing I’ve experienced and it’s everything…and it’s scary.”

“Don’t be afraid,” I whispered, pressing a kiss to her forehead.

“I feel like we’re stepping into territory where we can hurt each other… The thought of losing you…”

“Emily, stop. All I’ve ever secretly wanted was you. I never thought I’d be anything more than your protector; your safe place. Now that I have you, there’s nothing that’s going to take you from me.”

“You don’t want to be my safe place anymore?” She sounded disappointed.

“I want to be youronlyplace.” That made her smile. “Fuck every other guy. You’ve never needed to go searching for love when you had me, of course, I couldn’t voice that, but now I can.” I pinned my eyes on hers. “Now I can pamper and protect and fuck the shit out of you twenty-four seven. Be prepared. You’re going to be thoroughly loved.” She cuddled me tighter, and I ground my teeth against how possessive I felt. I would never control her. I hated when women or men let their partner control them. I just wanted her to know she was mine, and I was hers. No one came between us, or they’d have to deal with my mood.

“You’re tense.” She noticed. “Why is Freddy trying to come out?”

I sighed and bent down and rubbed my nose against her neck. “My thoughts are putting me in a mood.”

She sniggered softly. “What are you thinking about?”

“About how much I hate every guy you’ve dated and any future ass-wipes that want to mess with you.” I caught her smiling as I moved away from her neck. “Don’t smile.”

She kept smiling anyway, so I went back to her neck and nuzzled her some more. “Says the guy that’s been rubbing me the wrong way the last couple of months texting Kelly,” she finally grumbled. “But that doesn’t matter now. You’re really,for real, ‘my Benjamin’ now when I say that, right? So, it doesn’t matter now, does it?”

I moved away from her neck. “Right. And I could have always been, even before now.”

She cupped my cheek and shook her head with a smile. “You’ve always been my Benjamin. My most favorite person and the safest place I can be in the world. Only now I can say it out loud instead of inside my head, and now those two words hold so much more meaning.”

_______

“Are you stalking me?” Emily asked as she rounded a section at Crash’s and found me at one of her tables.

“Can’t a guy eat around here without getting such rude customer service?” I sighed dramatically and leaned back, placing my arm across the back of the booth seat then I admitted, “Maybe.”

She shook her head, snorting. “Don’t be annoying. I can’t work when you’re here.”

“Why?”

“Because I wanna keep coming over here.” That had me grinning like a fool as she leaned down and placed a kiss on my lips.

“You got plans tonight?” I asked her.

“You trying to pick me up or something?”

“I’ll whip out Michael Myers and put him in for you, so he’ll be waiting for you when you get off tonight.”

She squinted her eyes, trying not to let her smile show. “I don’t know… I’ve really been into Freddy lately.”

“Nightmare on Elm Street it is,” I said immediately after.

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