“December.”
That did it. I was a puddle before his lips even touched mine. His mouth brushed them once, twice, before settling over me in a languorous kiss that had me arching against him. I opened for him, and Josh took advantage, stroking his tongue against mine with enough friction to set me on fire.
My heart soared, pouring so much emotion into me that I wasn’t sure my body could handle it. A laugh burst free, and I felt him smile against my mouth in response.
“Kissing me is funny?” he asked, lifting me to the counter to bury his nose just beneath my jaw.
“No!” I giggled again as he growled.
His face lifted, the light in his eyes reflecting the sheer joy I couldn’t contain. “What then?”
My fingers traced the lines of his face, catching on his rough morning stubble. God, he was just so freaking gorgeous. Somehow he’d gotten hotter in the last two years, time stripping away the last vestiges of boyhood from this glorious piece of man. “I’m just happy.”
“Well, that’s the idea.”
“I keep thinking about the hours we spent driving between Nashville and Fort Rucker, and the stolen weekends, and the good-byes…” And the times we both wondered how long our relationship could stay this strong without living in the same zip code.
He kissed me softly. “No more good-byes.”
“Promise?” A tremor slipped into my voice.
He cupped my face and looked so deeply into my eyes that I knew he was reaching for my soul. “I will never leave you again by choice, December. This is it. We made it through the worst, and now we’re here.”
I sighed and nodded. “So now what? Everything we’ve done has been to get to this point.”
A breathtaking smile swept over his face. “Now, we’re just happy. You and me, and this townhouse full of boxes.”
Bam! Bam! Our shared duplex wall carried the noise from our neighbors. “It’s a little early for a hammer, Jagger,” I muttered.
“But maybe not too early to get nailed?” Josh wiggled his eyebrows and swallowed my laugh with a kiss.
If happiness had its own electrical current, we could have powered the whole city of Clarksville.
The alarm blared on my cell phone, and I reached for it, randomly slapping the counter in search while trying not to break from Josh’s mouth. Oh, screw the phone.
I wound my arms around his neck and threw myself into the kiss, angling the way I knew he liked and sucking his tongue into my mouth. He groaned, sinking his fingers into my hair, and then drove me insane with every lick, nibble, and caress. Josh pulled back with a gentle bite on my lower lip and then silenced my phone.
“Fun time’s over, Ms. Howard. You have class in an hour and ten minutes.” He waved the phone.
“And?” I questioned, sliding my hands under his PT shirt to feel the delectable ridges of his abs.
With a muttered curse, he retreated. “And it takes one hour and seven minutes to get there, which means it’s time for you to go.”
I threw on my best pout. “I can skip.”
He took my messenger bag and travel coffee mug and thrust them both into my lap. “No. We had a deal. Normal life, which includes you going to class, no matter how badly I’d like to take you back upstairs and listen to you scream my name as you come.”
Need slammed into me, and my breath left in a rush. “That’s really not the best argument to get me to leave.”
He put the kitchen island between us. “We don’t have to fight for time together anymore. This is our normal, babe. So you go to class, and I’ll go to work. And if you’re a good girl…”
I hopped off the counter and slung my bag over my shoulder, stalking him until his back hit the counter. “If I’m a good girl?” My fingers dipped into his waistband.
His eyes darkened, and his gaze dropped to my lips. “You’ll find out when you get home.”
Home. I lived with Josh. A fresh wave of euphoria bloomed in my chest. “You have a deal. Whatever will you do while I’m gone?”
“Oh, the normal. Go to work, maybe hang those pictures you marked for the upstairs hallway. Seriously, who frames the Gettysburg address?”