Page 223 of Things Left Unsaid

“About you,” I counter, pressing another kiss to her knuckles. “I want you to be happy here.”

Her eyes grow round as she stares at me, then, in an explosive flash of movement, she’s suddenly sitting on my lap in the truck, straddling me, hands clutching at my arms, mouth on a collision course with mine.

She tastes better than those cookies she makes—sweet and sinful. I could eat her up every day for the rest of my life and die a happy man.

My hands settle on her ass as she grinds into me, but it’s how she thrusts her tongue against mine that has me rocking back because damn, I stoked a fire in her I didn’t know I was building.

A whimper escapes her as she breaks off the kiss to pepper my face with smaller ones. She graces my nose, my cheeks, my chin, my brows, and my closed eyelids in the most tender experience of my life.

She showers me in gratitude, exuding it like that perfume of hers laces every breath I take, but gratitude wasn’t why I offered to let Tee move in with us.

Pigeon Creek is enemy territory for her.

I don’t want her to leave.

I’m being selfish.

But, I figure, a man’s allowed to be selfish when it’s centered on keeping the woman he loves happy.

Because I do—there’s no way this mass of feeling in me is anything but love.

Not friendship love like when I was younger.

But the big passion the poets write about and the artists paint.

The love that’s impossible to describe and define.

Thatis what I feel for her.

When my eyes drift open, I see tear tracks on her cheeks and frown at the sight. “Hey, what’s this?” I ask, stroking my thumb through one of the glistening lines.

“You’re being so kind and I?—”

“I’m not being kind,” I argue. “I’m being smart.”

“You are?”

I slide my other hand to the center of her back and tug her into me. “Right here is where I want you, Zee. With me. A piece of your heart is in New York City. It’s in my best interests that Tee moves back.”

“Why?”

I tip her chin so I can press a kiss to it. “Because then you won’t go, won’t think about leaving. You’ll be here. Where I need you.”

Zee licks her lips as she stares into my eyes. “I don’t want to go.”

“Good.” I nuzzle my nose along the line of her jaw. “I want you to be my wife, Zee.”

“I thought I was?”

“You are. But I want you to be mine for real.” She shivers when I nip her earlobe. “Do you want that too, baby?”

“You know I do.” It’s a keening cry that settles right in my dick. “I’ve always wanted you, Colton. Always.” Her arms tighten around me. “I’ve been waiting foryouto wantme.”

“You can feel that for yourself, can’t you?”

“I can. God, I need you inside me, Colton. Now. Please.”

“In the truck?”

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