Page 119 of Not That Complicated

Adam tilted his head and looked down into my face. He licked at the corner of his mouth, and went to cut another piece of cake.

He stilled when I took hold of his wrist.

“I believe I asked for it served a la abdominals,” I said, again going for sassy but failing miserably. One, because my voice was reedy. Two, because, oh my god, stop sounding like acannibal. Three, because he snatched my hand and held it between his own.

“Jesus, Ray. Your hand is freezing!” He chafed it.

“Oh, you know,” I said breezily. “I’m having a bit of a fight, flight, or freeze reaction here. It’ll pass.” I kept my gaze down and tangled my fingers through his.

“What’s going on?” Adam murmured.

I hummed, turned his hand over, and started playing with it. He let me, watching as I drew a circle over his palm, slipped my fingers through his and back out again. “Not much.” I stalled.

“Did you find another dead guy?” he said sympathetically.

“Don’t even joke about it,” I said, glancing up. Our eyes clashed. I quickly glanced away. He looked amused. Tender. Wary.

And so patient.

Liam really had hit it on the nose when he said I was not the mature one in this relationship, hadn’t he?

“No more dead guys, ” I said.

His free hand came to rest on my chest. “You just fancied a night away from home? Decided to treat yourself to the honeymoon suite? At the Premier Lodge?”

“Yes. Something like that. Something completely normal like that. Like a normal person would do.”

He waited, but I was still freaking out quietly.

“Well, then,” he said. He pulled his hand away and undid his tie.

I still couldn’t quite meet his eyes again—I would absolutely and definitely grow a pair in a minute. Demand he date me. Throw the condoms and lube at him. Something classy.

But right now, my gaze was stuck to his neck. He left the tie hanging loose and popped the top button of his white shirt.

Then the next button.

Then the next.

He kept on popping buttons until his shirt was hanging open. I’d been trying to be sexy about the whole eating the cake off his abs thing, but with both cake and abs in view, I was feeling less theoretical about it.

Adam took my hips in a firm grasp, and pulled me into him. My body was pressed against his. There was only the thin layer of my t-shirt between us. I tipped my head back and met his steady gaze.

“Are you ready to talk?” he said.

“I love you.”

His mouth dropped open.

Okay, Iwasgoing to ease into it slightly more gracefully than that.

A bolt of horror washed through me when I said it, just as it had when I’d confessed it to Liam. It was washed away just as quickly by a sense of rightness. Of fate.

It didn’t matter how Adam responded, I’d said it.

I’d laid it out there.

And okay, I’d sort of flung a love confession at him out of the blue and I could probably have gone with a soft opening, like, hey, do you want to date? But it was fine.

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