“I know it’s a bit much,” Felix muttered, sounding uncharacteristically unsure of himself. He shoved his hands in his pockets and shifted slightly on his feet. “And a bit stalkery. I mean, I knew most of your favourite authors of course, but I might have had your mum snoop into your Kindle too. I guess I just felt like I needed todosomething. Somehow if I built you your perfect room, if I made this house somewhere you’d want to be, then maybe, maybe you’d want to be here. With me.”
My eyes were still stinging, and my throat felt tight as I looked at him. His shoulders were tense as he cleared his throat and avoided my gaze to look out of the window. I couldn’t get my words past the lump in my throat, so I decided to act instead. When I burst forward Felix’s startled gaze shot back to me. His hands were only just out of his pockets in time to catch me as I jumped into his arms, my legs encircling his hips. I took his gorgeous face in both my hands and covered his cheeks,forehead, nose and finally mouth with kisses. He let out a shaky relieved laugh as I continued my attack.
“You like it then?”
I leaned back slightly to look at him, returning his smile with one of my own, even as a tear fell down my cheek. “Of course I like it, Felix. Iloveit.”
“I love you, you know,” he said.
“I do know,” I said through my smile as another tear fell.
“I know I’ve said it before, but I’m sorry I let you down. I promise, Iswearit’ll never happen again. And you can daydream, go down a writing rabbit hole, disappear into your books; I’ll be here waiting. I’ll be here sorting the real world for you. I mean, all those times I lectured you about changing, and it was me that needed to bloody well buck my ideas up. I just?—”
I cut him off with a kiss then rested my forehead against his. “I couldn’t stay in my weird little dreamy comfort zone forever. Okay, maybe I don’t need to be a fully corporate animal like you, but Idoneed to be able to handle some public-facing stuff if I want the books out there.”
“But—”
“And I wasn’t happy, Felix. You pushed me, yes. Were you right all the time? No. But that doesn’t mean that some change wasn’t good for me too.”
He rolled his eyes. “What am I going to do with you?”
“Well, you can keep me.”
His eyes lit, and his smile widened. “You’ll stay with me here?”
“Felix, you’ve built me a blooming library, had a map of a fictional world I made up painted on an actual wall, given me multiple orgasms, supported me in my career, tolerated my mother, let a small horse molest you endlessly and eat your belongings for me.” I softened my tone as I went on. “You madesure I was warm, you stopped me from disappearing into my world. Of course, I’ll stay with you.”
His eyes clouded for a moment. “I didn’t always make sure you were warm. I haven’t always supported you.”
“You’ve supported me since I was five years old. Nobody, not even Dad, listened to my stories like you did. I loved you then, and I love you now.”
“And you’ll stay?” he said as if wanting to clarify the situation, wanting to get some sort of verbal agreement I wouldn’t back out of. “Here?”
“Well, yes. But we have to go back to Little Buckingham on the reg. The mothers would lose their shit if we stayed away. We can stay in my shed. It’s practically a three-bed house now, thanks to you and your crazy ways.”
“I guess I can spend more time in Little Buckingham, especially now Dad’s out of the picture.”
“Plus, Legolas misses you.”
He shuddered. “I’ll spend time back home, but you have to train that fucking pony.”
“Sure.”
“You’re not going to train him, are you?”
I bit my lip. “No.”
He buried his face in my neck and burst out laughing. I wrapped my arms around him and squeezed him with my thighs.
“Did you decorate your bedroom?” I asked, smiling at the hundreds of books on the wall opposite.
“Of course.”
I cleared my throat. “Maybe we should…”
“Uh, uh,” he said, striding over to the sofa and lowering me down. Once we were there and I was wrapped in his arms, he kissed the top of my head. “Tell me a story.”
I snuggled into his side and let out a frustrated huff. “I’d rather see your bedroom,” I grumped, and he chuckled.
