Page 147 of Paradox
“I’ll never stop, Jin. I’ll never stop giving you what you want. I’ll never stop picking and teasing. I’ll never stop putting you back in your place when you get out of control. And I’ll never,ever, stop loving you. No matter what.”
“No matter what?”
“No matter what… I’ve lived so much more life than you. I’ve seen the shitty, and the fucking awful. It’s only been short, but what I’ve got with you is so much better than all that. It doesn’t take years to know when it’s right. And you’re what’s right. Even if you end it. Even if you need to know what else is out there, I’ll never be able to replace you—that much I know, more thananything I’ve ever known before. I’ll always take you back, Jin. I’llalwaysbe there. No. Matter. What.”
They’re all so foreign to me—the words leaving my mouth—but I know it’s because I’ve waited my whole life for Jeon Jintae, and no one else has ever deserved to hear them.
His chin quivers, and I know he’s trying his hardest not to cry. “I don’t know what I can promise you other than that I love you. I know I’m young. I know I have my whole life ahead of me. But I am old enough to know that if this is what true love is, then I’ll never find anything, or anyone, better.”
“How much sugar am I meant to put in this thing?”
“Would you just let me—”
“If I walk out of this kitchen and see your ass out of bed, I’ll tie you to it.”
“Two teaspoons,” I sigh, then mumble to myself, "But it still won’t taste right.”
Three spoonfuls of brown sugar. That’s how much I put in our coffee when I make it. But like with everything else, Eden goes overboard, so I tell him less. Though I know it’ll be just like him with the gochujang. I let him use it once, and it was so bad I hid the container.
“Did you want anything else?”
I cross my arms and twist my head towards the loft window. “To get out of bed.”
“I heard that.”
“Good.”
“Do you have enough pillows?”
“There’s none left on the sofa!”
I hear Eden’s bare feet padding on the wooden steps. He reaches out to put the coffee between two of the barrier slats beside the bed before stepping fully into the loft.
“This is ridiculous.”
He sits on the end of the mattress and looks at me—propped up on too many pillows—with a weird, possessive, but also humbly proud, look on his face. “I disagree.”
“I feel like a freaking concubine sat here like this.”
“Never.” He crawls towards me, kneeling by my hips but with an arm either side of my shoulders. “You’re the one and only.”
Whilst I like the sentiment, it doesn’t change the fact that; “I’m not an invalid.”
“For today you are.”
“But I’ve already been down to have a shower.”
“And I held you the whole time.”
“Because you wouldn’t let me go. Not because I asked you to.”
I groan and slide down from the pillows so my body is flat on the mattress and I’m looking straight up at Eden’s chest. “We had sex. You didn’t cut my leg off.”
Crawling backwards, Eden rolls me onto my stomach, straddles my calves, grabs my hips, and starts kissing my ass through my sweatpants. “I’m just trying to preserve you.”
“I’m not a pickle.”
He bites my butt cheek. “How about… I want you to rest up so I can get to fucking this tight little hole again.” My stomach flutters, and I clench—wishing he was already there—but with his lips on me, he can feel my muscles tense. “See. You want it, too.”
