“You’re an idiot.” I froze at her words, keeping a firm hold on her hand as I watched her eyes flutter closed for a moment before cracking back open to study me carefully. “You’re such an idiot, Theodore West. Do you know how long I’ve loved you? How many times I’ve said it as something more than your friend’s daughter who looked up to you? If you can promise me that you’ll be by my side during my worst days, then how could I not be there for you during yours?”
My throat bobbed as she rose on her knees and swung one leg over my lap, straddling me. Sinking down, she sat there and stared like she was afraid I’d change my mind and leave. If she thought that, then she was the idiot.
She ran a palm across my jaw, thumbing my bottom lip before leaning in, hovering over them with hers. “I know people won’t understand right away, but they’ll see.”
“And what is it they’ll see?”
Her lips brushed mine as she said, “That I love you too much to let you go.”
Pressing her closer into me, I wrapped an arm around her waist as my other hand cupped the back of her head to deepen the kiss. She parted my lips and slipped her tongue inside, but it was me who took it farther. Rolling my hips upward, I listened to her telltale moan before flipping us over, so she was on her back with her bare legs spread for my body to slip between.
When her arms snaked around my neck to pull me closer, my cell rang. Ignoring it, I bit her bottom lip. Trailing my mouth down her neck and nipping it as I moved my hands to the oversized tee she wore to strip it off her, the phone pinged in my pocket.
“Fuck.”
“You should check that.”
“It’s probably Dallas. He’s outside waiting for us.” Momentarily, I’d forgotten about our dinner plans. I liked the thought of spreading her legs and eating her out instead.
Her face reddened like she knew what I was thinking. “He’s waiting for us?”
“I can send him off.”
For a moment, it looked like she was going to nod. Then, in a quiet voice, she admitted, “I am kind of hungry.” My cock throbbed with a need to be inside her, but I ignored it. It wasn’t every day Della admitted something like that. Most people would consider the statement mundane, but I knew better.
Standing up, I offered her my hand, trying to pretend I didn’t see the way her eyes roamed down to the large bulge that was tenting my pants. “Come on then, Della. Let’s grab something to eat. We can continue this later.”
She bit into her lip again, eyes sparkling with mischief. “Is that a promise?”
I bent down and kissed her again, groaning when her tongue swiped mine. “If I don’t come inside you at least once tonight, I’ll probably die, sweetheart. That would be a real shame, wouldn’t it?”
“You can’t say things like that to me,” she all but groaned, pulling a pillow over her face.
I laughed and yanked it away. “Can’t help it. The thought of me inside of you, maybe even planting something there someday, drives me fucking nuts.”
Her sharp inhale wasn’t lost on me. “You would want that?”
Did she not? I could remember all the times she would share her elaborate future, family and white picket fence included. She’d never described a high-rise penthouse where her children couldn’t go outside and play without the risk of crime around. It was always some place remote, quiet, and peaceful. A house surrounded by grass and trees and close friends and family.
“If you do,” I told her honestly, brushing her face with my knuckles. “Until then, practice makes perfect.”
She rolled her eyes and smiled. “You would make a really great father, Theo.”
The thought of her with a swollen belly only made my cock that much harder. “I need to get you out of here before I lock us inside your bedroom and have my way with you in every position humanly possible to try making that happen sooner than we both want.”
“Theo!”
I swatted her ass. “Come on. Time to go.”
She just laughed.
Chapter Twenty
Della
I hadn’t wanted to go to Divers after the celebration dinner Ren, Tiffany, and I went to for the end of school. It was my annoying best friend who insisted we needed to go, which meant there was somebody there he wanted to see.