Page 77 of Afterglow
“Deal with? Bea…” he intones, placing his book on the bedside table before hoisting me up to a seated straddle. “Come here.” Both hands hold my face, forcing my gaze to his. “You’re perfect for me.” One kiss dots my cheek. “Nothing about you is a burden.” Another kiss dots the opposite cheek. “I chose you—I’m choosing you. All of you.” His lips find a sweet spot on my neck. “Chaos, chattiness, unhinged thoughts, everything. I’ll choose you over anyone else, every time.” A final kiss to the space over my heart has it fluttering in its cage. “Okay?”
I nod, too overcome with his devotion to say anything, and return my head to his chest. Fletcher sighs and picks up his book again, but my mind is restless, spinning all the worst-case scenarios, all the ways this could fall apart, as any good thing in my life inevitably does.
“Fletcher?”
“Yeah, sweetheart?”
“Do you want kids?”
“I don’t know.” He barely glances from the page he’s on.
“Would you…still love me if I didn’t want them?” My eyes clench, bracing for an unfavorable answer.
“Of course,” he says, mindless and unfazed. “Love isn’t conditional, Bea.”
“‘Cause I think I’d be a terrible mother.”
Fletcher drops his book and exhales through his nose. “I don’t believe that for a second.”
“And anyway,” I continue the argument, though there’s clearly none to be had, “I don’t want things to change, like, ever. I like our little life. I don’t want to share you. Is that selfish?”
“It’s not selfish,” he practically coos. “Do you know how many children are born for selfish reasons? I’m happy with you. You’re more than enough for me.”
My smile widens maniacally at the assurance.
“And if we wanna be around some tiny humans, I’m sure our friends or my siblings will be glad to let us spend time with theirs.”
“Okay.” I toy nervously with the short hairs between his pecs. “You don’t think you’d get bored?”
“Of what?”
This man really doesn’t find me boring or annoying at all? I am horribly annoyed by the idea.
“Me!” My arms shoot up, exasperated. “A whole life of only ever kissingme, sleeping withme, only being withme. Wouldn’t you find it absolutely, completely,unbearablyboring?”
Fletcher laughs from his belly, the rare sound deep and glorious and jiggling all my lumpy bits. “A whole life with just you, boring? No, not a chance.” His hands gather the loose hairs cascading over my shoulders and upper back, drawing our faces together. “That’s my dream.” The husky whisper across my lips is better than any vow. “Tell me I’m lucky enough for the rest of my dreams to come true, Bea. I only wanna be with you.”
Chapter 27
They’re Not the Boss of You, I Am
Fletcher
October
The thoughtof Behraz Irani is ruinous.
From the moment I wake to when I lie to rest for the night, I feel her on every square inch of my skin. She doesn’t need to be physically there. Each spark lit by my functional neurons fires her name. She’s so deeply embedded in my soul that if death tried to part us, it’d have to take me with it. And I wouldn’t have it any other way. I’ll live and die for this woman.
Behraz kisses the inside of my wrist across the cab of my truck. Her lips nip over the vein, drumming up excitement in my pulse. I shudder. “We’re gonna get into an accident.”
She nods andmmms but doesn’t stop. “I can’t help it.” Her lips cinch around my skin, and my shoulder lifts, rolling a shiver down to the tips of my fingers. “You’re just so…cute and nibble-able.”
Pins and needles prickle up the same arm, and my warning comes out more like a plea for mercy. “Bea.”
“Pull over, Dreamboat.”
As if I’d ever say no to her. I throw on the hazards and park next to the highway, the roads nearly empty from the early hour.
