Page 63 of Love You Always

She puts a finger against my lips. “I meant I was nervous to say it too. But it’s true. I’ve fallen hard and fast for you, Archer Corbett. I love you.” It makes me the luckiest man alive.

CHAPTER 30

Ella

“Mmmm,”I hum, liking everything about my surroundings—a soft quilt, cool sheets, a quiet room. I’m splayed on my stomach, with my arm flung across Archer’s chest. My cheek rests against warm skin over a hard plane of muscle, and I feel the subtle rise and fall of Archer’s chest as he breathes. His hand comes to my forehead, and he smooths my messy hair away from my face. His fingers tangle in the strands, which he twists and rearranges. As he gently tugs, the nerve endings in my scalp respond like they’ve been tamed by the most decadent hairbrush. Every part of me that he touches has the same response, asking for more. Forever.

My eyes pop open at that thought. There can be no forever with this man. He doesn’t want kids, which makes him my polar opposite in one very important way. I have no business thinking about anything beyond right now. And right now is oh, so good. Maybe I’m destined to be the girl who never has a happily everafter, at least not in my romantic life. I decide not to think about that too much right now.

I haven’t heard from my lawyer, and I’m almost afraid to call her for fear of bad news.

“Hey,” I say, looking up at him.

“Hey yourself.”

“Haha. Do you want to come to a movie premiere with me next month? Walk the red carpet and do all the things. I promise the after party will be next level.”

“Yeah? You want me to be your date in public? Won’t people talk?”

I think about it. “Yeah, you’re right. See, this is the problem—I make impulsive decisions when my heart is involved. Story of my whole romantic life. A movie star scandal might help wine sales, though.”

He tickles me mercilessly. “You think I’m only in this for wine sales?”

“What are you in it for?” I tease.

“The phenomenal sex.” His face turns serious. “The beautiful woman I can’t stop looking at. And a hundred tiny meaningless moments that fill me up because I’m experiencing them with you. Listening to you slurp your coffee to cool it down instead of blowing on it. Watching you tame your hair into a knot without using a hair band. Feeling you lean closer when I stroke your hair. I’m in for all of it.”

I lift my head and stare at him, floored by his thorough answer and endeared by his honesty. “Wow.”

“Keep asking questions, princess, and I’ll keep answering ‘em.”

“God, I love you.”

He smiles and shifts beneath me, pulling me closer and tugging me onto my side, so my stomach meets his hip and one of my legs rests on top of his. Now, we’re a tangle of limbs. I look at his face again and find a small smile playing on his lips, like hemight not realize he’s doing it. I like catching him in these unintended moments of honesty.

“Why are you smiling?” he asks.

“Becauseyou’resmiling.”

I expect the hint of happiness to leave his face in an instant, but instead, his almost-smile grows into the real thing. “Impossible,” he says, trying to turn his smile into a frowny face. He doesn’t try that hard.

“This is pure heaven,” I say, lowering my cheek to his chest and letting my eyes drift shut again. Even without knowing the time, I can tell it’s late morning by the way the sun tilts in through the window, already high in the sky in late fall.

“You can stay for as long as you want,” his voice rumbles beneath me. “You can stay forever.”

And there it is again—forever—that word that sounds all cute and fun, but it means something neither of us really means. Right?

I can’t help feeling a little devastated that he doesn’t want the same things that I do. I can imagine waking up next to him every morning, telling him my secrets every night before bed.

I want him for all of it.

Story of my whole romantic life.

But there’s a baby out there without a family and that’s my destiny, I just know it. I can’t give up on my dream, even though it means Archer can’t be my forever. Plus, he lives at Buttercup Hill, which is not my reality. It’s been great to be here between films, but soon enough I’ll be on location or back at my house in LA. It’s hard to imagine how his life could mesh with mine.

“You’re sweet. I’ll be right back.” I roll away from Archer’s naked body and off the bed, even though every fiber of my being is begging me to go right back where I just was.Don’t go, give us one more hour, my cells seem to be imploring. But I can’t. It will just make it harder to remember where my boundaries lie if I keep pushing them farther away.

Once I’m off the bed, I yank my tee from the floor and struggle it on while I walk to the bathroom. Shutting the door behind me, I look at myself in the mirror. “What are you doing?” the woman looking back at me seems to say. She’s asking why I’d leave a hot, amazing man naked in the bed and shut myself in here.

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