Jake followed right after, catching my mouth in a rough kiss when he was done. “Christ, darlin’, I like this side of you, too.”
I curved my hand around his neck and stole another kiss before asking, “Which side?”
“This take-charge side who pushes me the fuck against the shower wall.”
“Good because I’m thinking I might do that again tomorrow.”
Those blue eyes of his heated. “Best fuckin’ way to start a day.”
Later, after we were dressed and trading lazy kisses against the kitchen counter, he asked, “What’s your day look like?”
“I have to do some work. I’m writing documentation I know no one will read, but that I need to be perfect or else I’ll die.” I traced a finger over one of the tattoos on his bicep. The coiled snake wrapped around a dagger, with a chess pawn randomly inked in there too. My level of obsession with this tattoo in particular was ridiculous. Or maybe it was just the muscle it covered that I was obsessed with. Mind you, I was just as obsessed with the unlocked padlock tattoo on his chest, sitting right over his heart like it wasn’t a metaphor begging to be spiralled over. “And I have my Saturday lunch call with Mum.”
“That’s a regular thing?”
“Every Saturday unless we have something else on. She’s got it in her calendar as ‘Weekly Debug Session with Eden.’” I smiled at the way his mouth tugged into the beginnings of a grin. “Yes, I got my need for organisation and love of data analysis from her. She’s got spreadsheets for everything. Dad thinks we’re both adorably nerdy.”
“They’re in Sydney, right?”
“Yeah. Mum’s a high school maths teacher and Dad works in IT. They’re basically the perfect nerdy couple.” I shifted my attention from his tattoo. Or should I say, his arm. “What about you? Besides your mum and the club?”
“I’ve got a sister in Melbourne. Haven’t seen her much since Mum got sick, which I should probably fix—” he dipped his head and stole a kiss before locking gazes with me “—but getting on a plane would mean leaving you, and that’s not high on my to-do list.”
My brain slammed the breaks so hard my thoughts rear-ended each other. Did he just say leaving me wasn’t high on his to-do list?
SIR. That’s not how you casually boyfriend someone.
Also, my uterus just made eye contact with my heart and they’re both panicking.
“Eden.”
His voice pulled me from my internal spiral, and I found him watching me closely.
“You’re thinking too hard again, darlin’.”
“Yeah, well,” I said, gripping my coffee like it might help me play this cool, “you can’t just say things like that and not expect my brain to launch thinking tabs.”
His brows lifted, amused. “Like what?”
“Like that you don’t want to leave.” I waved my hand vaguely in the air. “I’m used to hot guys saying things like ‘I’m not looking for anything serious’ while their tongue is still down my throat, not—” I cut myself off, realising I was spiralling out loud again.
“Not what?” he prompted.
I blew out a breath. “Not . . . the opposite of that. Not someone who likes all the weird things about me, and doesn’t want me to change, and doesn’t want to . . . get on a plane and leave me.” I stared at him, heart racing. “I’m not used to guys like you.”
I winced. The words had kept coming because clearly my mouth had fired my brain and gone rogue. “Okay, wow, let’s all pretend I didn’t just blurt that out like a walking trauma blog.”
Jake didn’t speak right away. He just stepped in close and took the coffee mug from my hands like I couldn’t be trusted to hold it while my emotions were heightened.
Then he cupped my jaw, his touch all certainty and care, and made me look at him. “You don’t need to walk it back,” he said. “I heard you. I fucking see you.”
My throat tightened.
“And just so we’re clear, I’m not trying to be like the guys you’re used to,” he went on. “I’m not here to hit and run. I’m not leaving when shit gets real. And I sure as hell don’t want you quiet, sweet, or any less weird than you are. Not that I think you’re weird.”
He paused, eyes searching mine. “I want this version of you. All of it.”
My heart was doing backflips, but my mouth, traitor that it was, chose that moment to whisper, “You know you just made my uterus cry, right?”
