Her scent filled my nose, and I found myself grasping her hips before she could sit. All too willingly, she pressed the length of her body against mine and caressed her fingertips down my jaw. I touched my forehead to hers and let the tension that was holding my body prisoner release.
“I missed you,” I rasped. “All day, I kept counting down the minutes until I could see you.”
“I-I missed you too.”
We stood like that for a long while, simply enjoying being in each other’s atmosphere. This was all I needed to feel whole. This girl, this closeness. Shaw Cage was my everything. If I lost her, I would be nothing.
“You okay?” she murmured when I couldn’t hold back the harsh exhale of pain just the thought of losing her caused.
“I’ve got you in my arms. How could things get more perfect than that?” I lifted my head and touched my lips to her brow. Forcing myself to release her, I let her get into the car and then shut the door. “What kind of bed do we want?” I asked as I backed out of the driveway.
“It’s your bed, Jags,” she huffed.
Gritting my teeth, I reminded myself not to push her too fast. We’d come a long way since I’d fucked up so royally, but she was still skittish. I needed to stay patient and move at her pace. I needed to show her how much she meant to me and not just grab her and keep her locked in our apartment until she realized that we were forever.
“It might be my bed…for the most part.” I muttered the last four words under my breath. “But I was hoping you would have regular sleepovers. I want you to be comfortable.”
Her brows pulled together. “You mean that?”
“Of course I mean it!” I grabbed her hand and lifted it to my lips without taking my eyes off the road. “My favorite place to be is beside you, Dimples. I dream about holding you in our bed.”
When I had a safe chance to glance at her, it was to find her baby blues glittering with emotion. Then she blinked her thick lashes and turned her head to look out the windshield. “I prefer a firmer mattress, but the few times you’ve been in my room, you always complained my bed was too hard.”
“Maybe we should get one of those mattresses we can each control the firmness of, then,” I suggested. “Or…”
Out of the corner of my eye, I saw her turn her head to look at me again. “Or?”
“You can just sleep on top of me. I’ll be your firm mattress.”
I heard her gulp then laugh softly. “We can call that ‘Plan B.’”
“I like contingency plans.”
It took us an hour to pick out the perfect king-size mattress and another hour for us to agree on a bed frame. By the time we got to dinner, both our stomachs were complaining, and I was in fear of my life with Shaw getting hangry. As soon as we got to our table and the waitress set down a basket of bread, I picked up a roll and smothered it with butter before offering it to Shaw as a sacrifice.
Her giggle did crazy things to my chest, and she bit into half of the roll. After she swallowed, she licked her lips and then sighed contently. “You just get me,” she said with a shake of her honey-blond head. “I kind of like that.”
Her pink cheeks told me she more than kind of liked it, but I didn’t call her out on it. Instead, I tore apart another roll and snacked on it while she buried her face in the menu. She was hiding from me, because we both knew she was going to order the rib eye. I loved that she didn’t care about eating in front of me, unlike girls I’d taken out in the past who were scared to even eat a salad.
As expected, she ordered the steak, along with a baked potato and steamed veggies. I ordered the exact same thing, asked for another basket of bread with our meal, and then sat back to watch my girl. She didn’t have her phone out. Instead, she was covertly watching me while debating the dessert menu.
“How was your day, Dimples?” I asked, wanting to hear her voice.
She dropped the menu onto the table with a shrug. “It was boring, like the last week of school always is.” Her phone announced a text