Page 139 of Love You Like That (Excess All Areas 4)

“Because we get to move in together, as long as your list of rules for the perfect house isn’t as long as your rules for your perfect man.”

Zoe laughed. “I had particular tastes.”

“No beards. No boy bands, socks with shoes, no Elvis lookalikes, no polo shirts…should I continue.”

She ran her finger down his cheek. “Definitely, no beard, and I know you’re wearing socks with your sneakers because I was there when you put them on.” She wrapped one of his curls around her finger, his hair longer now after she confessed she loved it. “You most certainly do not look like Elvis. And this sweater with its designer holes and frayed hem…so not a polo shirt. Oh, what else. Right? The boy band. Meh…you kind of are.”

Alex gripped her hips and pulled her close. “We absolutely are not.”

Zoe screwed up her nose. “You are boys, and you are in a band.”

“Unless we’re wearing double denim and doing coordinated dance moves, we are not a boy band.” He kissed her to punctuate his point. “And I think what I’m hearing you say is that I completely nailed finding you the perfect man who hits all of your requirements.”

“I’m still stuck on the idea of you and Jase in double denim dancing. What else next year?”

“You’ll graduate and get your first gig as a professional percussionist. I’ll break America.”

Zoe slid her fingers between his. “I like the sound of that. But it’ll be more like, I’ll graduate top of my class with a first-class honours degree and become a world-renowned percussionist.”

“By next Christmas?”

Zoe shrugged. “Why not? And you’ll have a sold-out tour, at least three Billboard number ones, and record a fantastic second album that blows the first out of the water.”

“That does sound better. And maybe somewhere along the line, I’ll propose in between all the world domination and the extremely hot sex.”

Zoe stood up on her tiptoes and kissed his lips. “I’m looking forward to next year much more right now.”

A roar of childish laughter came from inside the building. “Oh, and we’ll officially start taking our first kids in here.”

“If it’s half as popular as the open day has been today, then it’s going to be a roaring success.”

Alex took her hand and led her to the door. Through the large windows, he could see Matt and Izabel helping children paint. Luke sat on a large mat with a hand drum in one hand, using Zale’s little fist to tap it with the other while Willow filmed them. Ben was lying on the floor with three boys building something out of Lego. And Jase and Cerys had a group of children singing a terrible rendition of Jingle Bells.

“It’s amazing chaos,” Alex signed.

“Like our lives?”

He cupped her cheeks and kissed her. “The very best kind.”

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