Page 94 of This Spells Love

This earns me a small smile.

“Is that right?”

I run my hands down the front of his chest. “I mean, I walked down these steps and immediately wanted to tear your clothes off. It might have been all those muscles you were flexing, lifting all of those boxes and everything, but I feel like this place has big sex energy.”

His hands cup my face, and I expect a flirty kiss or a hungry kiss, something to go along with the tone of our banter. Instead, I get a long, deep, soulful one that I feel all the way to my core, along with the distinct impression that it means something to Dax.

“Thank you.” He pulls me into his chest, and we stand there for what feels like hours but is probably only a handful of minutes. I could linger there happily for many more, but the sound of Dougie’s not-so-delicate footsteps clunks down the stairs, followed by a grizzly-like clearing of the throat just as Dougie’s head pops around the corner—hand readied to cover his eyes if needed.

“Okay, good,” he says when he sees us still fully clothed. “Wasn’t too sure what the two of you were up to down here. We should probably work out some sort of code. I just promised Brandon I’d make him bacon for brunch, and we keep it down here in the big freezer. But while I’m here, I thought I’d tell you both that Brandon and I are planning on throwing a party here on Saturday to welcome our new roommate. Real classy affair. I’m thinking either Tight and Bright orTwilight-themed. Mark it in your calendar.”

I take out my phone to make a note of it in my calendar andmake sure I have the time this week to find the perfect costume. However, when I flip to Saturday, two words stare back at me.

Waning gibbous.

My time is up. As of Saturday, the moon will be back in position, and I need to decide what the hell I’m going to do.

Stay or go.

Dax as lover or Dax as friend?

My dream or his.

“You okay there, Gems? You’ve gone a little white.” I look up to see that Dougie has retreated back upstairs, and I’m once again alone with Dax.

“I have a question for you.” My heart is sticking with its deafeninglub-dub, lub-dub.

“Okay.”

“Theoretically. If I could bring your store back, exactly as it was before but even more successful, but it meant you and I had to go back to being friends, would you want me to do it? Hypothetically. Completely hypothetical.”

Dax studies my face. “That seems like a very Don Corleone–like question?”

“Who?”

He pulls me into his chest, laughing. “There it is.”

“What?”

“Your tragic flaw. I knew you were too good to be true, Gemma Wilde.”

“You think that’s my tragic flaw? Have you forgotten how we met?”

He pulls back and plants a light kiss on my forehead, smiling for the first time since stepping into this damp, dark, extremely not-sex-cavish basement.

“Fair enough. And to answer your question, no. My store is aplace, and you are a person. A very weird person sometimes, but I think that’s why I love you.”

My heart stops.

Completely.

It ceases to beat inside my chest until my brain catches up and processes his confession.

“You love me?”

He lets out a long breath as if his lungs were suffering from the same momentary malfunction as my heart.

“It wasn’t supposed to slip out quite like that. I probably should have made it way more romantic, but yes. I do. I love you, Gemma.”

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