Page 113 of Love Around the Corner
“After. Look, Livie.” He took a deep breath and ran a hand through his hair, looking uncharacteristically unsure of himself. She’d never seen Nick this nervous. “I know I didn’t ask you to wait, and if you didn’t, I’ll understand.”
“What do you mean?”
He waved a hand at her. “You look different, with the haircut and the clothes. And you’re starting this amazing new life out here. If you decided to leave your old life behind, leavemebehind, I’d understand. It’s no more than I deserve.”
She still wasn’t great with men and relationships, but she had a tiny inkling of what he was trying and failing to say. It made her oddly feel better, seeing him so unsure of himself, no charm to fall back on. Anything he was saying this badly had to be one hundred percent genuine. “Are you asking me if I’m seeing anybody?”
He exhaled and looked at her with pure desperation. “Yeah, that’s what I’m asking.”
“No, I’m not.”
“You’re not?” His eyes lit up with a cautious hope, but he held still, not assuming anything, waiting for her to tell him what she wanted.
She shook her head and took a step toward him, reaching up to run her finger down the length of the telescope. “See, a lot changed for me when I moved out to McArthur, but there’s this one thing that didn’t change, even though sometimes I wished that it would.”
Nick tracked her slow approach with hungry eyes, every inch of him tense and unmoving. “What’s that?”
“The problem is, I fell in love with you the minute I laid eyes on you, and no matter how hard I tried, I couldn’t seem to fall back out again.”
He let out a shaky huff of laughter. “Livie, will you do me a favor?”
She stopped, no more than a foot away from him. “What’s that?”
He moved suddenly, planting his hands on the telescope on either side of her head. “Stop trying to fall out of love with me, okay? Fall all the way fucking in. Because I promise, I’m here, too, waiting for you.”
Her eyes began to burn and her throat felt tight. “I think I’m already all the way in,” she whispered.
He leaned in, until his lips were just a breath away from hers. “And see? Here I am.”
He closed the distance, kissing her with a slow, thorough tenderness that made her knees go weak and her body catch fire. His hands roamed everywhere as he explored her mouth, as if he couldn’t get enough of touching her—her face, her hair, her neck, then down her back to her hips, and back up to cradle her face again.
“I love you, Livie,” he murmured between kisses.
“I love you, too. God, I’ve wanted to say that for so long.”
“Keep saying it.” He kissed her again. “I want to hear it every day for the rest of my life.”
The implication of “forever” made her heart leap with joy, until she remembered that there might be an expiration date on this interlude.
She pulled back enough to look into his eyes. “And will you be here to hear it?”
He flashed that crooked grin that had first made her go weak for him. It still did. “Are you asking if I’m going to cut and run again?”
“Yes. And also if armed agents are going to show up to disappear you again.”
He chuckled, rubbing the pad of his thumb over her cheekbone. “No, we’re all square again. Although my job situation has changed a little bit.”
“What do you mean?”
“I work for them now. No more fun freelance gigs. I’m exclusively on the government’s payroll.”
What did that mean? Was he leaving again to disappear into one of their oubliettes?
“It’s got its pros and cons,” he continued, leaning in to nip at her bottom lip.
“Like?” The feel of his teeth scraping across her tender skin was making her go tight in all kinds of interesting places, and she was dangerously close to tossing aside her need for answers in favor of her need for sex.
“Well, the pay isn’t great. I’m a civil servant now, with a civil servant’s salary.”
