Stand-In Saturday (Love For Days #2) - Kirsty Moseley Page 0,93
frown. There’s something blazing in his eyes, a passion that is half-mad, half-sad. I can’t work it out.
“You … you have options. You know that, right?” He gulps, gently pushing my hair away from my face. “You could move on if you wanted to, Luce. You could forget him. You could move forward and be happy with a man who would appreciate how amazing you were, someone who would know how lucky he was if he got to call you his.”
He dips his head and kisses my forehead, his lips lingering there. It’s so sweet that my eyes drop closed, and I grip his waist, not letting him move away.
“I-I like you, Lucie. I’m crazy about you actually.” He says the words against my forehead, and my eyes fly open as I wonder if I heard him right.
He’s crazy about me? Me?!
Theo pulls back a fraction, the tip of his nose brushing mine. “I missed you so much this week. It’s the silly things I missed most. Like how you snort when you laugh really hard, or how your nose wrinkles when you’re trying to decide something, or how you twiddle your hair around your finger when you’re reading your book, or how witty you are. You make me laugh like no girl I’ve ever met.”
His eyes burn into mine. I can’t look away; I can barely breathe.
“I think you’re perfect, Luciella Gordio.”
His thumb strokes across my cheek, leaving a burning trail in its wake. A tiny whimper slips from my mouth at his sweet words. No one has ever said that to me before.
He licks his lips and continues, “Every part of you is perfect. From your big green eyes to your sassy, sugar-obsessed mouth, right down to your bum that drives me wild. I like everything about you. I think us meeting in that lift meant something. And I know you’re still hurting over that dickhead and that you brought me here to make him jealous, but … Luce, I don’t just want to be a stand-in for Lucas. I want to be your leading man. I want to be the one who causes you to smile down at your phone when my name pops up on your screen. I want to be the one who kisses you good night, the one who makes you happy, the one you can’t live without.”
What is happening? My shock makes my skin break out in goose bumps. This is the last thing I expected to come out of Theo’s mouth. He likes Amy. He’s smitten with his brother’s new wife; he told me so himself.
“But … you like Amy,” I whisper, my mind reeling, his words on repeat.
“You’re perfect. Every part of you is perfect.”
My heart squeezes in my chest.
“No.” He firmly shakes his head. “I just thought I did. In the beginning, I’ll admit that, yes, I wanted to date her. I thought I was in love with her. Seeing her with my brother made me jealous as hell. I like Amy, she’s epic, and I thought I was jealous of them because I wanted her for myself. But last weekend, at the wedding with you, I realised I wasn’t even upset that they were getting married. When I watched her walk down the aisle to marry Jared, I realised it wasn’t actually her I was jealous of. It was their relationship. Their easy, fun, and loving relationship. They’re soul mates, and I realised that’s what I was jealous of. That my twin has found it and I haven’t.
“I know now that it was never Amy I wanted. I just wanted someone epic like Amy. Someone I can be myself with and who accepts and likes everything about me. Someone who makes me so happy that I smile, even when I’m just thinking about them. Someone I can’t get enough of. I think that might be you, Luce. Since I met you, you’ve kinda consumed me. You’re amazing and smart and funny and brave and beautiful. You’ve dazzled me, and I’m hooked. I’m crazy about you, and I wish you weren’t still hung up on a guy who didn’t treat you right. I wish there were none of this baggage and that you were available. But I need you to know that you have options. If you wanted to give it a go with me, I’m here for all of it.”
I blink, so shocked that I can barely process his words. Where did this all come from? My brain isn’t