Page 87 of His Greatest Treasure

“I hear you, and I’ll try.”

“That’s good enough for now. I’ll get out of your hair. Don’t even think of spam texting me for updates either. I’ll send you pictures, I promise.”

I nod, laughing softly at being called out. “Go before I haul my girl back into my arms and refuse to let her out of them again.”

Gracie lets me go and strolls around the car before hopping inwith a final wave. Nova blows me a kiss from the back seat, and I return the gesture as they pull onto the street and disappear.

I leave the curb and start up the sidewalk, but I’m stalling after I’ve stepped over two cracks. Oliver took his SUV this morning after I told him I didn’t need it, and as he pulls up beside me, looking incredible with a pair of square-rimmed sunglasses on and his forearm straining with his grip on the steering wheel, I wonder if he should be allowed to drive it without me ever again.

The passenger window is down, and the clean smell of the interior mixed with his cologne nearly sends me into a spiral. Not only is his house impeccably clean, but his car doesn’t even have a single crumb on the floor mats. Nova’s habit of eating Froot Loops on the way to school will have to come to an end this week if he’s going to insist I drive this monster around.

Maybe if I tell him how many times I’ve run over curbs or clunked into poles in parking lots, he’ll change his mind.

“I’m gonna need you to go back inside before I crash. We need at least one vehicle, Avery,” he rumbles, the sunglasses shielding what I know is blistering heat in his eyes.

My cheeks flame. “Something tells me you’re too focused of a driver to crash into anything.”

“Usually, yes. Now? Not a fucking chance.” He shifts into park and then runs a hand over his mouth, attention solely on me. “I was supposed to walk up to the door and get you all proper. I’ve got flowers and everything.”

I peek into the open window before glancing into the backseat. The two bouquets of flowers make my heart soar.

“Two?”

“One for each of my girls,” he states easily. Like it’s instinct for him to claim both of us as his.

“Well, bring them inside and help me put them into water so we can go. Nova just left with your mom, but she’ll be happy to see them tomorrow.”

“Yeah? She likes flowers too? I wasn’t sure.”

“I’mpretty sure she’d love anything you got her. But yes, she does like flowers.”

His grin is blinding, heart stuttering. I feel the effect of his happiness like an arrow to the chest.

He’s quick to step onto the street and grab the flowers from the back before coming toward me. I’m reaching up to pull his glasses off the moment he gets close enough, desperate to see behind them.

Even expecting the heat, it still shakes me to see it. He stares at me like a man desperate for something he’s always dreamed of having. I never thought I’d be the recipient of such a look. Such a declaration.

“Sorry, were those in your way?” he teases lowly.

The lines are still slightly smudged between us, not quite as clear as I need them to be yet, but in this moment, I don’t let that detail deter me. I lean up on my toes and kiss him anyway. He’s waiting for it and presses his warm lips to mine with a fierceness that multiplies the butterflies in my stomach.

Grasping my hip, he pulls me in until we’re flush and I can feel the hard press of his cock against my stomach. It makes my head swim, arousal hot in my blood.

“Are you hungry?” he mumbles against my mouth.

“Yes.”

His chuckle is hot, breathy. “For food, princess.”

I let my disappointment show with a deep frown when he ends the kiss and moves his hand from my hip to my back to lead us to the house.

“I could eat.”

The bouquets in his hands are wrapped in white and pink paper that crinkles with every slight movement of his fingers, and I steal the biggest of the two, ripping at the paper to get a look inside.

“The boy who wrapped those is dying a little inside with how you just ruined all his hard work,” he says.

“He did a great job.” With the paper flayed andflopping in the breeze, I smile at the first arrangement of flowers. “And so did you. I was expecting roses.”

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