Page 49 of Love Rescheduled
“I don’t give a damn who’s watching. I need you, Nat.” His mouth covered mine, begging me to let him consume me. I dropped my defenses, along with my suitcase, and let him envelop me. I didn’t know if that made me weak or if it was a show of strength on my part. But I needed him as much as he needed me in that moment.
When I didn’t hesitate, he pulled me closer and deepened his urgent kiss, groaning as he pressed his body against mine. He tasted like the Biscoff cookies flight attendants hand out on planes. It was the best taste in the world. While his tongue explored my mouth, his hands intertwined with my own. For a moment, I forgot why I was flying to LA. All I wanted to do was stay in our little world, wrapped up in each other.
“Natalie,” he said, like he revered my name above all, as he took a breath and then tugged on my lower lip with his teeth. “I love you. Please don’t push me away.”
A sudden rush reminded me why I was flying to LA. “Josh, you shouldn’t be here. You’re making a mistake. Zac texted me.”
“That slimy bastard. I told him to stay out of it before I kicked his butt out last night.”
I’d never heard him talk about his best friend like that. “You kicked him out? Why?”
“Let’s talk about it later.” His lips went in for another round.
Regrettably, I pressed against his chest. I wanted nothing more than to kiss him again, but he was more important. “Josh, we can’t do this. You need to go home. Film your pilot. Please,” I pleaded.
He placed his hand over mine and held it against the Fleetwood Mac shirt covering his chest. “I am home when I’m with you.”
I looked up at the concrete ceiling, tears welling in my eyes. “I can’t have you resenting me. Worse, hating me. Josh, I’m not worth this.”
“The hell you aren’t. That’s your parents talking.”
I lowered my gaze, only to be struck by his blazing eyes. “It won’t work between us. Please quit making this harder than it already is.”
“You’re wrong. And I was wrong to leave last week. Hell, to let you go three years ago. That’s what you know in your life because your idiotic parents taught you that’s what you do when it gets hard. But I’m going to show you that you’re worth fighting for. That we’re worth the fight—that we’re worth all the fights.”
He had no idea how much I loved the sound of that, even ached for it, but … “You can’t magically fix me.”
“You don’t need to be fixed. You need to be loved.”
I leaned into him, resting my head on his chest, realizing that all I really wanted in life was to be loved just for me. My parents had never given me that, and so I never thought I was worthy of such love. Any hint of trouble in relationships just solidified it. But maybe it wasn’t true. Maybe it didn’t spell the end. “Did Alec tell you that?”
“No,” Josh chuckled. “But he helped me to realize some other things.”
“Like what?”
He exhaled loudly. “I’m not happy in LA,” he admitted.
“You’re not?”
“Not at all.”
I clung tighter to him. “So, what are you going to do?”
He leaned away, a mischievous glint in his eyes. “For starters, I’m going to prove to you I’m not going anywhere. After that, I don’t care, as long as we’re together.”
“Josh, you say that now but—”
He silenced me with a soft kiss on my lips.
I closed my eyes and reveled in his gentle touch.
“Nat,” he whispered. “Stop telling me how I feel. I know what I want.”
“I want to be with you too.” Especially considering my last two dates. If that was the pool I had to choose from, I had no desire to dip my toes into it. Or maybe my problem was that I had never jumped out of the waters of Josh. I still had a problem, though … “But I don’t know how to have you.”
“I guess it’s a good thing I’m an excellent teacher.”
“Is that so?”
