Page 113 of Storm in a Teacup
While this isn’t exactly how I hoped this would turn out, I can’t get over the one fact that is making me giddy.Linny loves me. She loves me. So, I am perfectly happy to wait. I’ll wait for days, months, years until she is ready. And once she is, I’ll be here, arms wide and heart open.
I think I sit on the stairs for an hour before her door opens.
“Ben.”My name comes out like a breath on her lips.
I look up at her whilst keeping my seat on the bottom step. She’s still in her sweatpants, but has slipped on a pair of white trainers.
“Fancy seeing you here,” I say.
She huffs out a laugh. “I thought you went home. Uh, do you…do you want to get dinner?”
I stand up, parking myself at the bottom of the stairs. My eyes narrow. “It’s nearly midnight, but I’m sure there’s a kabob place open somewhere.”
“No, I mean, sometime. Do you want to get dinner with mesometime? Or go to a movie?”
“A film? I like films. What film?”
“Ben, I’m trying to—” She cuts herself off with a groan. “This was cuter in my head. I’m asking you out. I am asking you on a date because I would like to date you. Oscar and I had a long talk, and we decided I’m being stubborn, so I’m trying to rectify that. I don’t want you to wait for me because I think the two of us have done enough waiting. I’m ready now.”
I smile uncontrollably and walk back up the stairs. “Sugar, we’re already dating. We’ve been dating for a while.”
She groans again. “I know. God, we’re thick.”
“We really are.” I reach the top of the stairs, gently grabbing her face with both my hands. “Are you sure about this?”
She clutches my wrists as she nods in confirmation. “Are you? You’re choosing a hard route.”
“No, I’m not,” I say firmly. “Linny, falling in love with you is the easiest thing I’ve ever done. Staying in love with you will be even easier.”
“It’ll be easy for me, too.”
With that, I gently pull her mouth to mine, wanting to slam into her lips, but refraining because of her glasses. She soon removes them, pinching the earpiece with her fingers as her arms loop around my neck.
“I’m sorry,” she says through kisses. “I’m sorry I was being stubborn.”
“No, sugar,” I say. “Don’t apologize. You were being careful. I can’t fault you for that.” I kiss her again. “You came around quicker than I thought you would.”
“I can’t believe you sat there for an hour.”
“I told you I would wait.”
CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX
Linny
I cannot believe I tried to say no to this man. I love this man.
Don’t get me wrong, I’m terrified—so worried that we have both been swept up in the excitement of it all. Swept up in the rush of feelings a new love can bring. However, at the same time, I am so confident in my feelings for him and his feelings for me that all that worry and terror is washed away. My heart can hold him. I know this because it has been holding him for a while.
So right now, I put all my focus on him.
Ben backs me into my flat and kicks the front door closed with his foot. Without taking his lips off mine, he reaches behind us to lock it shut. He keeps walking me backward until we hit a wall. Once I hit that wall, I drop my glasses on the mail table to be retrieved much, much later.
“I missed you so much,” I get out between kisses.
The noise he makes is nothing short of elated. “It hasn’t even been a week.” His leg slips between my thighs, pinning me in place.
“It’s like I was going through Ben-withdrawal. I want to see you every day. I need to talk to you every day. I can never getenough of you, Benny.”
