My Cone and Only (King Family #1) - Susannah Nix Page 0,59

of his skin all around me, the happy little murmurs he made when I scratched my fingernails over his scalp.

The light filtering in through the curtains was slanted and golden-tinged. It was late afternoon, and we’d lost almost a whole day of working on the house. I should probably care about that. And yet right now I couldn’t seem to. Not at all.

Wyatt kissed the top of my breast—the one he’d been holding in his hand—and repositioned himself on the pillow next to me. “Can I ask you something?”

“Sure.” I looked over at him and smiled, loving the sight of him in my bed, how relaxed he looked, and how right it felt to be here with him like this.

He reached for my hand and twined our fingers together. “Earlier, you made it sound like today isn’t the first time you’ve ever thought about me like this.”

“Definitely not.” I stared at our hands as he stroked his thumb over my knuckles.

“How long?”

I felt a moment’s trepidation. Embarrassment at just how long I’d been carrying this torch for Wyatt. He squeezed my hand when he sensed my hesitation, and I remembered that it hadn’t been easy for him to fess up to his secret crush before. But he’d done it.

Now it was my turn to dig deep and do the same.

I rolled onto my side so I could look at him as I made my confession. “As long as I can remember.” His hand stilled as furrows sprouted across his brow. I swallowed, my throat dry as cotton, and kept going. “I don’t know exactly when it started because I can hardly remember a time in my life when I didn’t have a crush on you. Even before I knew what a crush was, you were always in the front of my mind. I always wanted to be the center of your attention.”

Wyatt opened his mouth, but no sound came out.

There was a chance I’d just freaked him out enough to send him running for the exit. Just because he’d gotten a stiffy for me at seventeen didn’t mean he was ready to hear me confess to a lifelong, potentially disturbing obsession with him that extended all the way back to my prepubescent years.

I started to turn away, but his hand slid into my hair, pulling me back toward him. Our noses brushed, and my eyes squeezed shut as I blew out a long, shaky breath.

He pressed our foreheads together. “Andie.” His lips touched mine in a tender caress. “Andie.” He kissed me harder, the insistent pressure of his mouth coaxing me to open for him.

I melted against him as he cradled my face in both hands. His kiss telling me in no uncertain terms that he wasn’t freaked out and he wasn’t running for the exit.

Not yet, anyway.

I pushed the unwanted thought away, focusing instead on Wyatt’s mouth and tongue and hands. The way they touched me. The way they claimed me. Eager. Seductive. Cherishing.

My god, all the years we’d missed. The lost time when we could have been together. All those nights I’d spent alone, thinking about him. All the nights I’d spent with someone else, still thinking of Wyatt. All those times I’d watched him take home another girl and wished it was me.

It could have been me.

He dragged his mouth away from mine and wrapped me up in his arms, crushing me against his chest. “There’s no fucking way I’m letting you go now.”

My heart stuttered to a stop. “Were you planning on letting me go before?”

Loosening his arms, he took my face in his hands again and looked straight into my eyes. “No.” He frowned when I let out a long exhalation. “Were you worried about that?”

Before I could think of a way to answer, he shook his head.

“This isn’t just a casual fuck to me, if that’s what you were thinking.” He hesitated, doubt flashing across his expression. “I hope that’s not what you wanted.”

“No.” I touched my fingertips to his lips. “I don’t want to be someone you sleep with and then leave.”

“You could never be that. You matter to me too much.”

Something bright flared in my chest. Wyatt was the wish I’d been carrying around in my heart, and now he was telling me he was mine.

I burrowed against him, sliding my hands around his waist. Our bodies fit together like they’d been designed as a matching set, uniquely meant for each other. He enfolded me in his arms, surrounding me with comfort