Long Time Running - By Hannah Foster Page 0,76

probably still tastes really good."

Breaking off a burnt tip of the wing she held it up to him. "If you like charcoal."

"I'm sorry babe," he smiled apologetically.

"Me too. I've ruined our date!"

Tugging her to him he looked lovingly in to her eyes. "No you haven't. You're here and that's all I need for a perfect date with you."

A faint blush colored her cheeks. "You've gotten cheesier as you've gotten older."

"Maybe," he shrugged. "Why don't I call Golden Palace and have them deliver some dinner?"

Sighing in defeat, she nodded. "At least this time the chicken was cooked."

Nathalie opened the wine as Eric called the restaurant. Ensconced on the sofa, she passed a glass to him. She watched him curiously as he took a sip from his glass. His brow was knitted together and she gently ran her finger across it.

"What's going on in that big brain of yours?" she asked quietly as she stretched her legs out into his lap.

Softly stroking her smooth skin he smiled nervously. "I wasn't sure...I mean I was thinking of bringing it up tonight but I wasn't sure I would but I forgot how it's impossible to hide anything from you."

Raising an eyebrow, she quietly encouraged him to go on.

"I...I was thinking about yesterday and the apartments you are looking at and I...I don't want you to move into an apartment in the neighborhood ."

"What?" she asked in confusion. "Why not?"

Bringing his wine glass to his lips, he took a big gulp and let the cool liquid trickle down his throat.

"I want you to move in with me," he blurted quietly. "I want you and Jack to move in here."

"Eric" she gasped, shocked.

Gently removing her legs from his lap he got to his feet and started to pace. "It's just...Nat, we've lost eight years together, eight years we are never going to get back and I don't want to lose more time. And I don't want Jack shuffling between houses. We're a family. No matter what happened after, Jack was conceived in love - we may not have known we were creating him but the act of doing so was a loving one."

Her eyes glistened with tears as she nodded. "Yes. He was most definitely conceived in love."

"Nat, you're my family" he declared urgently. "You have always been the family I needed and wanted and I don't want you living somewhere else. I want to come home to you, go to bed with you, wake up with you. I want to be the one to chase your nightmares away and I want to be the one that makes you laugh until you are breathless."

Placing her wine glass on the side table she rose to her feet and walked to him, gently cupping his cheek with her hand. "Eric, what are you saying?"

"I'm saying I love you" he replied thickly. "I'm saying I am in love with you."

She stared at him in surprise.

"I am still in love with you Nathalie. I have never stopped being in love with you and even on the days that I wished I could, it was impossible. You...before surgery you told me that I feel like safety to you."

She swiped at the small drip of tears streaking her cheeks. "You do," she interrupted.

"That's what you are to me. You are the only home my heart recognizes and you are who I want to be with for now and for always."

She was stunned silent.

"Say something" he pleaded.

"My heart has always belonged to you Eric. And it always will."

Taking her face in his hands, he lowered his mouth to hers and kissed her with unbridled passion. It was as though finally being able to say out loud what he had carried with him for so long had freed him.

The ferocity of his kiss took her breath away. Feeling her legs give way, she fisted his shirt trying to stay upright. Sensing her weakness, Eric scooped her up in his arms and carried her down the hallway, his mouth still fused to hers. Her fingers threaded through his hair as her lips started to swell from the pressure of his kiss. He laid her gently on the bed and leaning back, stared at her in breathless wonder. Filled with both love and desire for her and unable to help himself he placed a series of small staccato kisses against her lips.

"I love you," she told him as she recaptured her breath.

The words were like music to him and his mouth returned to hers, ravaging her