Page 44 of It Had to be You

Two steps in, she almost slipped but Alex caught her with his free arm, wrapping it around her body.

Together they eased into the spring and Tatum found herself nearly floating in the strange, thickened water. "Is it weird if I say I kind of like this?"

Alex's laughter rang in her ear. "Well, I kind of like it, too. So I guess we're both a little weird."

She looked up into his eyes and was struck again with how deep and dark his eyes looked.

If she could, she'd stare into them forever.

"I had a feeling..." his words were low and gentle, his hands moving to her waist under the water, “that your kind of weird is just the kind that matches my weird."

She laughed, her belly shaking and she lifted her hands up between them and smiled as she painted his chest and abs with the mud. "I like your kind of weird, Alex."

She felt her feelings welling up inside of her and bubbling up over the top. "I love your kind of weird. All of you. Your seriousside. The way you make people at ease by just being you. It's all I could have hoped for in the man I've fallen in love with."

She felt him still under her hands and then his hands moved down to her hips, bringing her closer against him. "Did you... did you just say-"

"That I love you?" Tatum felt her heart swelling in her chest and her breath shortening. "Yes." She smiled at how shocked he seemed. "I wasn't planning on it," she admitted, "but it just... it just happened and-"

Her next words were swallowed up by his kiss.

And when he leaned back, breaking the kiss they both realized that he had his hands on her cheeks.

He looked so startled that it startled her as well. "I... uh-"

"Does it look good on me?" She pointed to her face when she saw the confusion in his expression. "The mud?"

His smile lifted the corners of his mouth. "You look good in anything."

She put her hands on his cheeks and bit her bottom lip as the mud slicked across his skin. "You look good, too. We're going to have to get a picture before we wash off."

Before she could think better of it, she leaned in and kissed him.

Alex gave as good as he got on the kiss and when he broke away, he was breathing hard and heavy.

"You make it so easy for me to be... me." His voice deepened a little. "A me that I never knew I could be, Tatum. I smile more. I laugh more. And," he took one of her hands off of his face and worked it down between them until he could press her palm against his chest, "I know that this..." He squeezed her hand as she felt his heart pounding against her palm. "This is going to continue once this cruise is over because I've never felt for anyone the way I feel for you. This love? It's just beginning, growing stronger."

Tatum felt her whole world open up and the heat surrounding her wasn't just the heated spring they were standing in but the love she shared with Alex.

He was right. Things were going to continue after the cruise because neither of them was the kind of person who gave up on things easily. She didn't end up as an international champion because she gave up and Alex didn't become the head of a world-wide publishing empire by taking the easy route.

They were going to give this love every chance it could.

If spending the day at a private hot spring spa wasn’t enough to make her melt, having dinner

in a private dining room had tipped the scales. It wasn’t the quality of the food, which was just as amazing as it always was, worthy of every Michelin Star and then some. It was the company and the conversation that made her heart melt even more for him.

When it was time, Alexander walked her back to her cabin.

She knew it would be a repeat of every other night of the last week since they’d had dessert

together in her stateroom. They’d talk, they’d kiss and then Alex would head back to his own room. There was one distinct difference in each night.

Each night, he stayed longer and longer and each night she wanted him to stay more and more.

Tonight, she was going to ask him to.

The door opened up easily, nearly silently, or maybe it just seemed so with the thundering beat

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