She shut me up with a kiss. A kiss that turned hot and heated and needy and breathless, now that our hearts were done spilling. I really hoped our families took a hint and left us alone. But before we even really started, me leaning into her just slightly to let her feel what her little mouth was doing to me, she was pulling away. Peppering me with soft quick pecks like she didn’t want to let go but had to. When she leaned back and met my eyes, I could see a familiar determination in them. That and the surprising sight of moisture.
“Are you still crying?” I asked, using a finger to wipe her stray tear away.
“Once I start I don’t stop,” she admitted with a sniffle.
I leaned down and pecked her lips, “I can make you cry in a much better way if you leave here with me.”
She bit her lip. In her eyes I could tell she wanted to say yes, but I could also see something was stopping her. Softly, she asked me, “Can you wait?”
I wanted to say fuck no. I’d been waiting for a long-ass time.Toolong. But then I remembered all that she just said, all that she’d admitted, and all that I knew already.
I felt my heart pull in a familiar squeeze of admiration and respect. While waiting for her wouldn’t be so hard now that I knew she was mine, I also knew that I’d wait for her even if I didn’t know.
History was fact, and the facts didn’t lie. I already had a pretty good track record of waiting on Ceci. How much could a short while longer hurt?
So leaning in again, I kissed her cheek, her nose and then her mouth, already addicted to the way she tasted now that she was mine.
And on her lips, quietly, I whispered my truth. “I’ll wait forever if I have to, honey.”
Chapter Forty-eight
CECI
“Is someone bothering you?” I asked as I eased up to Connor. I was just coming down off the big stage set up along the Seaside Beach. The Woman’s Festival was still in full swing, but it was nearing a close. Donations had been pulled, a speech had been given, a turnout beyond mine and the shelter’s wildest dreams had occurred. And now it was time for me and my A-team to turn in, Christine and Nina getting just about as little sleep as I had over the past few weeks.
Now, as the mid-October sun began to go down, I got to walk toward the tall, handsome as fuck man who was standing there waiting just for me after a long successful day—my heart couldn’t have been fuller.
“No,” Connor answered as I settled in front of him, his eyes following me intently as I approached.
Looking up, I studied his face. “Then why do you look so grumpy?”
Dark eyes collided with mine. “Because you look amazing and you haven’t let me touch you yet.”
A familiar heat immediately formed in the bottom of my belly, curling all the way down to my thighs. My brilliant response was, “Oh.”
The word curled a smile from his lips. Different than I’d ever seen. Boyish in a cocky sort of way. He knew what he did to me, and he liked it. But he didn’t make a show of it, instead just reaching for me and running his hands along my shoulders as he looked me over. When he finally, (and I meanfinally), made it to my eyes I raised an eyebrow.
“Checking me out, Ferguson?”
“Fuck yes I am.”
A burst of laughter fell from me and still, I felt that hot arousal slick down my spine as I savored his hands on me. I don’t know how he managed to make me laughandlust, but he did it.
It wasn’t like I was depriving him or teasing him or anything. It had only been a handful of days since everything had blown up and came back together. Days in which we had both been busy. Me with festival preparations, meetings, announcements, all between fielding freak outs about the gravity of my new reality. On the other hand, Connor was busy with setting up his one and only client with proper cyber network security and technical equipment as opposed to the hand-me-down junk that stupid politician was using before I took over the shelter.
On top of all that, the little sneak somehow found the time to get my whole family out here, including Amá and Apá at the exact time I had to go out on a huge stage and thank everyone for coming and supporting the new SWWS mission. I wasn’t originally going to invite them. Ox knew about it because he had helped me put the damn fiasco together. My brothers and sisters finding out about it in bits and pieces, but I hadn’t wanted them to see me out here before I even knew what to do.
But just like always, Connor had been right. Ox too I guess (mental eyeroll). There was absolutely no reason for me to have these aspirations of complete success and all-knowing wisdom off the jump. My family didn't care if I lived up to some crazy standard I'd created in my head. They only cared if I was living up to me. Up to all the things I’d promised myself, and consequently them, I would be. They'd seen me through the thickest and thinnest and they were still here. They just wanted the best for me, and even if they had to live through the worst with me to get there, they would.
They would always. Just like I would for them.
And just like with my siblings, I didn’t know I was missing it, but the look of pride in my father’s eyes when he took in the fundraiser had been a weight of anxiety and uncertainty lifted off my shoulders. I almost sobbed with relief when he wrapped his arms around me and said, “I’m proud of you, mija.”
“Apá?” I asked, surprised. “What are you doing here?”
“You think I would miss out on my daughter’s big day?” he scoffed. “Never.”
“How did you even know about it?”
