Page 96 of Until Bax

“I know, baby. I love you too.”

“Oh.” I swallow over the lump in my throat as my eyes start to water.

“Hey,” he says softly as he walks to the side of the bed and takes a seat, wrapping his hand around the side of my neck. “What’s with the tears?”

“I don’t know,” I grumble, wiping at my cheeks, and he laughs.

“Come here, baby.” He pulls me into him, then settles me across his lap.

“You’re the best thing to ever happen to me.” He smiles as he slides his hand around the side of my neck. “And if you need me to pretend for a while that we don’t live together and that we’re some version of normal, I’ll do that, okay?”

“’Kay.”

“Fuck.” He buries his face in my neck. “My girl is strong in the face of everything else except her feelings for me.”

“You’re a lot to handle.”

“And you love me.”

“I do,” I agree, and he kisses my neck before pulling back to look at me.

“Do you still want to go out, or do you want to just hang here and read in bed?”

“I want to go bungee jumping.”

“Olivia.”

“Please,” I whisper, and he lets out a long breath as he stares into my eyes.

“Give me a second. I’m trying to figure out if it will ever be possible to tell you no.”

“Probably not.” I smile, and he sighs.

“Fuck, okay, but if something goes wrong, I’m spanking your ass.”

“Nothing is going to go wrong.” I lean up to kiss his jaw, then scoot off his lap. “It’s going to be fun.”

* * *

Bax

This is farfrom fucking fun.

With my arms wrapped tight around Olivia, I look out at the mountains that surround us to avoid looking down at what will likely be my death.

Fuck.

After driving around Gatlinburg and doing all the tourist stuff, including mining for gems out of a sand bucket that cost a hundred dollars, I stayed true to my promise and drove us to the bungee jumping place. The moment we arrived, they told us that Olivia and I could jump together, and I couldn’t admit to her that I was scared to death of heights. That even at work, the guys all know that if something needs to be done on a roof, they need to find someone else to go up there. My max height is twelve feet, and even that’s pushing it, which led me to paying for the two of us to jump tandem.

“You two ready?” the teenage kid named Cody who helped us into our harnesses asks and I glare at him only to have him smile huge.

“Ready.” Olivia laughs, and I look down at her, wondering what the fuck love has done to me. Obviously, it’s made me insane because there is no other reason I’d be doing this right now. “It’s going to be okay,” she whispers.

“It better be.”

“You’re going to love this.”

That’s doubtful.

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