Page 90 of Next Time I Fall (Excess All Areas 2)

“Can we just stay here like this all day?” His voice muffled by the pillow. “I really like your bed.”

Cerys grinned. “Sorry, rock star. We need to shower, eat, get you to your hotel for clean clothes, and do your vocal exercises.”

“Christ,” Jase said, lifting up onto one elbow. “Thought letting you and Little Jase spend some time together might put you in a less demanding mood.”

“Oh my God,” she said playfully. “Stop. Calling. It. Little. Jase.”

He tapped a finger on the end of her nose. “You’re right. I’m messing with you. Let’s go shower.”

An hour later, they arrived at the studio.

“Well done,” Jase congratulated as she pulled into a parking space.

“For what?”

“We didn’t get beeped at once this morning. You’re getting driving on the wrong side of the road mastered.”

She grinned and slapped his arm. “Next time, you can walk. Or get a cab.”

Jase leaned in and kissed her. “We both know you don’t mean that.”

When he kissed her like that, with soft lips and open eyes filled with hope, she couldn’t resist. “You’re right. I don’t.”

“Good. Because tonight, I want you to drive me to the hotel, help me pack and checkout, and then move into yours.”

“You do?”

“I do. I’ve got less than a week left, Cerys. And then you’ve got another month here before you return home, and I can see you again. I don’t want to waste time worrying about when we get to spend time together ... even if all we do is fall into an exhausted pile in bed at the end of the day.”

Her mind lit up like a pinball machine. There was so much to process in his words. He was leaving. She was staying. He saw something beyond now for the two of them.

“Say something, Cerys. Because it feels like a pretty big wave with you sitting there with your mouth open and eyes wide.”

“I’m sorry,” she said, shaking off her shock. “Yes. I’d like that. I can definitely help you pack.”

Jase cupped her cheek. “But that’s not what made you freak out.”

“I didn’t freak out. You caught me off guard.”

“About what?”

“You. Me. Us. Beyond being here.”

“I can’t fall in love with you if I don’t see you ever again after I leave here, Cerys.”

Her heart dropped.

“Plus, Little Jase isn’t ready to—”

“Stop,” she said, placing her palm across his mouth.

“Fine.” He kissed her palm and she moved it. “But he’s worried you don’t like him right now. You need to reassure him he didn’t do something wrong.”

Cerys rolled her eyes.

Jase took her hand in his and raised it to his lips, kissing it as his gaze turned serious. “I mean it, Cerys. This goes beyond Detroit, right? Wherever you end up when you move back to the UK, we make something work, right?”

The relief she felt was overwhelming. She hadn’t even been focusing too hard on what came next, still rooted in the early days of the two of them.

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