Page 109 of Give Me Forever

"So do you.”

Taking my hand, he led me toward the couch in the back, and we both sat down. He cleared his throat.

I kept glancing around. “Is dinner going to pop out of nowhere?”

“No, that’s waiting for us back at home. Avery, I wanted to bring you here because I wanted tonight to be special. I want to make you a few promises, and this seemed fitting.”

“Besides, I can't run away, can I?"

We both start laughing.

"That crossed my mind," Sam said.

"Genius as always," I replied.

He caressed the back of my hand with his thumb and then tugged at my hand, pointing at his lap. I immediately rose from the bench, but instead of sitting like a lady would on his lap, I picked up the hem of my dress and straddled him.

He grinned. "That's my woman."

"This is more comfortable," I said.

Chapter Twenty-Seven

Avery

"Avery." His voice sounded serious. My stomach constricted. "When you told me I shouldn't base this decision on you, I had a flashback to all those years ago when you basically told me you were leaving town and leaving me behind."

"Oh, Sam. I'm so sorry."

"No. That was on me, not on you. You simply told me how you felt, and I jumped to conclusions based on a decision we made when we were much younger and didn't know any better. But now we do. I do. You're my whole life, Avery, and we've lost many years being apart, but I don't care. We can’t make them up, and we have so many more before us. All I want to know is if you want to experience them with me, next to me."

"Yes, I do," I murmured. "It's all I ever wanted. I was thinking that even if I opened a physical store, I could probably do that in Maine or whatever.”

"No, babe. We're not going anywhere."

"Sam."

"I've planned everything out."

"You have?"

"Yeah. I think all of this has been a long time coming, but the pieces just needed to fall into place."

"Meaning?" I ask.

"I needed to meet you again."

"Sam, the things you say."

He skimmed his hands up my thighs, and my skin instantly became sensitive. Heat gathered between my legs. Damn, I was already losing my composure. Actually, I probably started losing it when I saw him come up to me in the suit because he looked so damn sexy.

“I think we needed the time apart to get to this place in our lives. Now we’re both ready.”

"I love you, Sam."

"Not more than I do. I've never been happier than I have these past few months we've spent together as roommates."

"We were pretty insane to think we could pull it off, huh? Just living next to each other, like we actually thought it would be platonic."

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