Page 100 of Not Catching Love

Don’t think I’ve forgotten about your welcome home. We had an agreement.

Derek:

Bug, it’s all I can fucking think about.

Chapter Thirty-Two

Xander

Seven’s holding me from behind, a little for support and a little to stop me from running through the front doors of the airport like a wild person. Derek should have landed almost an hour ago. Does it really take this long to get through customs? I have zero desire to leave the country, so I’ll never know, but it’s feeling really, really long.

Did the plane even land? What if it went down somewhere and it’s plastered all over the news and we’re standing here like fucking muppets waiting for a man who’s never coming?

What if?—

I grip Seven’s hand and take a long breath, remembering to ground myself before I let the thoughts go any further.

The automatic doors slide open again, and a group of people walk out. They head in all different directions, but one slows. Cranes his neck above the people around him. Looks around until he spots us.

It’s fucking him.

I break free from Seven and bolt. I’m running faster than my cardio-deprived body really should be running, and maybe I’ll die from oxygen depletion, but I don’t even care right now. I need to get to Derek.

I slam into him so hard anooompfleaves his chest, and he stumbles backward a step. But he drops his bag from his shoulder to wrap both arms tightly around me.

“Fucking finally.” His deep groan fills my ear as his face buries into my neck.

I can’t let him go. I’m going to be glued to him for the rest of our lives because that four months was brutal. There is no fucking way in the history of ever that I’m going to be able to do that again.

“I was starting to think your plane crashed and you were stuck in the mountains and were going to have to eat one of the other passengers to survive …”

He chuckles and presses a kiss to my throat. “You do know that I flew across an ocean, right?”

“You do know my catastrophizing isn’t logical, right?”

Derek squeezes me harder. “I missed you so fucking much.”

I pull back, needing to see his face. Just like last time, he’s scruffier, his hair is longer, and he’s way more tanned than he was when he left.

And he’s still the most handsome man I’ve ever seen.

“I didn’t think you’d ever get home.”

He brushes my hair back with his big hand. “Nothing would stop me. And …” His eyes search both of mine, drinking me in, all the longing and need and love I feel reflected back at me. “Fuck it.”

Derek’s mouth crushes down on mine. I squeak into the unexpected kiss, opening for his tongue, toes curling in myshoes, and I swear my head goes so light I might float away. My hands wrap fists into the front of his T-shirt, and when Derek finally pulls away, my whole face feels flushed.

“I needed that,” he sighs.

“Youneeded that? I was a second away from begging for it.”

His smile is broad and free as he kisses me one more time, takes my hand, and then grabs his bag again. He leads us over to Molly and Seven, who both swamp him in a hug.

“It feels fucking good to be back.”

“Thank crickets,” Seven says, taking Derek’s suitcase from him. “Now Z can stop his wallowing. I swear I haven’t had sex in a month.”

Molly scoffs. “I blew you in the bathroom yesterday.”

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