Page 55 of Puck of the Irish

I let out a shuddering breath, realizing that I just kind of word vomited all of that at him. A tear escapes down my cheek and I wipe it away quickly. He takes a step towards me and cups my face between his big hands. I take a deep breath at the touch, needing it more than I even realized. He traces his thumbs over my cheeks and I reach out to splay my hands on his chest.

“I do believe that, Nat. I know you, baby. Trust me, I know who you are no matter what name you use, I just want you to share all the pieces of you with me, even the ones you may not like very much. None of them can change the way I feel about you. I fucking love you more than I thought any person could love someone else and it makes me want to know every littlething about you. Good, bad, ugly.Allof it, Nat.” I sigh, his words making the pit in my stomach close up and my heart swell inside my chest.

“I love you too.” He leans in and kisses me then, soft and slow. We finally pull away and he leans his forehead against mine.

“You seem…relieved,” he says.

“I am. I thought…well, I thought you might leave.”

“Would you have?”

“Probably,” I tell him honestly and he pulls away, brows clear up to his hairline in surprise. I give him a small smile. “I would have stormed out and then realized I was overreacting and we’d have really great make-up sex afterwards.” His lips curl.

“Oh, that’s a much better plan, actually. Hang on.” He makes as if he’s going to bolt out the door, taking a few quick steps away from me. I laugh and grab onto the hem of his shirt as soon as he’s close enough again, tugging him towards me. He grips my waist and picks me up to set me on the edge of the counter, moving to put his hips between my thighs. I wrap my arms around him and lean into his chest as he rubs my back in slow, soothing circles.

“Thank you,” I whisper.For not leaving. For understanding. For loving me.He kisses the top of my head and I squeeze him harder.

“So…are you loaded then?” he asks after a few minutes and I can’t help but laugh.

“Uh, yeah, pretty much,” I admit into his chest. He steps away and arches a brow at me.

“Ya know, I kinda thought you were just a big ole gold digger this whole time.”

I smack him in the chest and he grins.

“No more secrets, at least not big ones like a whole secret life, deal?”

“Deal,” I promise him, and then I sigh, knowing I’ve got a shit ton of stuff to figure out in a very short amount of time, but right now, all I want to do is crawl back into bed with the man that I love.

“How about?—”

“Annie’s to-go and you make up for being a lying hussy with hours upon hours of stupid hot sex in my bed since you’re now a homeless street urchin?” he finishes, giving methatsmile, the one that I fell so fucking hard for even when I tried like hell not to, and I laugh, knowing that no matter what’s coming down the pike, I’ll be fine as long as he’s with me.

“That sounds a hell of a plan.”

Twenty-Three

RIZZO

“So,on a scale of one to send-me-sexy-nudes, how much do you miss me already?” I ask over the FaceTime video. We’d had to leave for another string of away games the day after everything had gone down with Nat’s dad and it’s honestly been a bit of a whirlwind. The media attention was…a lot, but I convinced her to let us become “official official” as she puts it, on our own terms after the stupid paparazzi photos were posted everywhere. I didn’t want the world thinking that Nat is just another in my admittedly lengthy list of hookups. She’s so much more than that and the thought of people putting her in that box made me want to start punching things.

So, I’d posted a bunch of pics of us from the last few months with the caption “when you fall in love with one of your best friends, life just makes sense,” and I think it made her feel better about the whole thing. She’d even teared up when she saw it and then promptly threw a pillow at me when I started to tease her about it.

Despite the whole Harrington secret identity bombshell, things with us are solid. Yeah, I’d been a little hurt, I won’t lie, and that had thrown me a bit—I’ve never been hurt by a woman before, so I wasn’t really sure how to navigate it—but I understand why she kept that part of herself and her life hidden, and at the end of the day, she’s still the same Natalie to me. She’s the same girl I fell in love with and can’t imagine my life without. So, yeah, things are good with us. Great. Fucking perfect.

“Hmm,” she says, tapping her chin. “I’d say send-you-sexy-videos-of-me-doing-very-naughty-things-to-myself level.”

I groan and wipe my hand over my mouth.

“You’re killing me, woman.” She grins and I have to adjust myself. Just the mere thought of seeing her playing with herself because she misses me makes me hard as hell.

“There’s an apartment open in your old building,” she says. “Not the penthouse likesomepeople,” she gives me a pointed look and a grin, “but it looks pretty nice.”

“Oh, that’s cool,” I say noncommittally. Neither have us have brought up the obvious answer to her housing predicament which is for her to move in with me. I think she thinks asking me will test the limits of my relationship skills a little too hard. And I haven’t brought it up because…reasons. So, for now, she’s house hunting. “I bet Jax knows who’s place it was. He knows all the dirt on everyone in that building.”

“Oh, noted. I’ll ask him when I go to pick up the hyena.” I laugh at her description of Zamboni. He’s a great dog, but he really is crazy as hell, especially when he gets the zoomies. He literally ran in a circle around the living room thirty-seven times in a row the other night. Thirty-seven. In a row. Without stopping. It was nuts and of course hilarious, and the video has gotten over a million views.

“So, are you ready for my big St. Patrick’s Day Blow Out? It’s going to be epic.Beyondepic. I’m still waiting to hear back fromthe city officials about dying the whole lake green, but I have high hopes. I’mverycharming and usually get what I want…”

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