Page 56 of Anchored Love
“Mason … I.”
“You don’t need to say anything. I didn’t say it because I wanted to hear it back. I said it because I love you and want you to know that you’re everything to me. Be ready at six. I’m taking you out tonight to celebrate.”
“Hmm… I’ll think about it, but I don’t go out with jerks,” I teased to lighten the mood, but inside I was screaming. We had only been a real couple a few weeks, and he was throwing out the L word like it was nothing. It was huge. Crazy big. I loved him too and felt like an ass for not saying it back.
“You go out with this jerk, yeah?” He gripped my hip, holding me in place. His erection pressed into me.
“Stop it.” My cheeks had to be blood red.
He kissed my neck.
“We’re at work,” I reminded him.
“Then I guess you’d better say yes to dinner, so I’ll stop us both from getting fired.” He chuckled, raking his teeth along the shell of my ear. I shivered. My insides warmed, and my panties were freaking soaked. The things he did to me.
“What time did you say?” I breathed in his intoxicating and tempting scent.
“Six.”
“I’ll be ready.”
“Good.” Mason kissed me again, then went back to work.
The moment he was gone Samantha came running. “So I take it things are official?”
“Yeah.” I couldn’t wipe the smile off my face. Mason worked, and the fact that he put his job on the line for me had me swooning. I knew he was a keeper, but this solidified it even more. Things between us were fast and hot; though, I didn’t worry about our flame fizzling out. We worked. We fit seamlessly into each other’s life. During the week he slept over most nights. On the weekends Mooch and I crashed at his apartment, and on Sundays we had dinner with my family. Mason’s parents had moved to Denver a few years prior, but he wanted us to visit during the summer.
“He um…” I licked my lips, reaching for the water bottle on my desk.
“He what?”
“Hold on.” I held up a finger and twisted the cap off. I sucked down a large gulp, my pulse still zooming a million miles a minute. “Okay. Whew.” I smiled. “He said and I quote, I love you.”
“Holy shit.”
“I know, right? I mean, it’s fast. Is it too soon?”
“You’ve known the guy most of your life. Is there ever a right time or rules? When you know, you know; right? What did you say?”
“I kind of froze and called him a jerk.”
Samantha laughed with a shake of her head. “Guess I should go ahead and order those monogrammed towels for you.”
“What? Towels? He didn’t ask me to marry him. We don’t even live together.”
My bestie folded her arms over her bosom. “Sure. Okay. And how many nights a week are the two of you apart? Hmm…”
She had me there. I had no argument. “Still. Nothing is official. He still has his apartment.”
“How much of his clothes are at your house right now?”
I rolled my eyes at her, but she wasn’t wrong; in fact, she had a point. I had given Mason his own rack in my closet for his work clothes. “Shit,” I muttered.
“Mhmm. You, my friend, have a live-in boyfriend.”
I guessed I kind of did.
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