hard, salivating at the sight of her instead of licking her sweet cunt before fucking her hard enough to feel me for however long it is until I do it to her again.
I want her un-fucked reaction to my requesting her company. Then, when she accepts, she’ll remain that way. I won’t fuck her again. I’ll own her, as she owns me.
Eyes on her ankle, fixated on the reality of what she means to me, I remind myself that patience is an actual virtue, one I’ve never met its acquaintance, aside from the situation with Kai, and now Elizabeth. Polar opposite situations, yet both drawing very similar conclusions.
“What are you doing way over there?”
I look up as she quickly pulls the sheet off her then covers herself again.
“Would ye do me a favor, Elizabeth Bloom?”
“I’ll do as many as you’ll do for me … more if necessary.”
“Fuck.” I place my hand over my heart. “This is it, isn’t it?”
She sits up quickly. “Are you okay?”
When she starts to get out of bed, I hold up my hand. “Stay, please.”
“Ethan, are you okay? Is Kai okay? Do you need—”
“I’m in love with ye,” rushes out, and I immediately wish I could take it back when I see the shocked look on her face.
I throw myself back in my chair and run my hand through my hair then down my face, as if that could somehow erase the way that revelation was revealed. “T’was not the way I wished to tell ye.”
When she starts giggling, I pull my hand from my face and watch as she covers her mouth.
“Are ye laughing at me, Elizabeth?”
She now uses both hands to cover her mouth as she falls back on the bed and her body shakes in spurts of giggles.
“Never in my life have I seen such nonsense,” I mutter as I stand up and stomp toward her.
“Nor have I.” She laughs harder now.
“Explain, woman,” I say, pulling her hands from her face.
Beaming, she’s fucking beaming. “Ethan, love is the good stuff, the best actually, and you make it sound like an announcement.”
“Ye’re laughing at something that’s very serious and that I would like ye to give serious thought to.”
She sits up, grinning like Kai does when I tell her we’re going for ice cream. “It’s not something to consider; it’s a feeling. Ponder maybe, but—”
“Then ponder it.”
Again, she laughs and covers her face. This time, it’s endearing.
“We’ve pondered it. Tried to deny it. Wished for it.”
“We meaning ye and yerself?”
She nods. “Me and myself.”
“In the future, me and myself need to ensure, I is included. Meaning, when we question feelings between us”—I point to her—“ye”—then back at myself—“I would like to have full access to any doubts so that they can be squashed immediately.”
“You’re freaking adorable. So …” Smiling, she reaches for me.
I take her hands and allow them on my chest. “They have to stay put. They move anywhere but, and this meeting will be totally off track.”
“We’re having a meeting?” Her voice squeaks.
“Businesses have failed, empires fallen, because there is no direction amongst those involved. I won’t let that happen. We have to be on the same page. So promise me when ye’re holding those meetings in that place in yer head, that if it involves in any way, shape, or form my love for ye, that I get a vote.”
“Is this about being the best?”
“I don’t do anything half-assed, Elizabeth, and I’ll be dammed sure when it comes to my treatment of ye, meeting yer needs, being yer partner will come first in my life.”
She nods and looks up, tears filling her eyes. “Me and myself want you to know that I have loved you for weeks.”
“Then come to visit Scotland with me.”
“What?” Her bottom lip quivers.
“I want to show ye my country,” I say as I wipe tears from her eyes.
“I don’t have a passport.” She sniffs.
“We’ll make that happen.”
“When?”
“Yer next four-day weekend.”
“Are you for real?”
“I am and so is my love for ye.”
Monday
Waiting for Kai to come home while the pain in the ass “partner,” who insisted on working her bloody shift because she insists on paying for her passport instead of letting me, I feel a weight lift off me that I hadn’t realized was ever there.
We made love twice, and we discussed how to deal with telling Kai that we’re together.
Elizabeth insists no overnights where Kai may wake up and find her in my bed, and as much of an irritation as that will be, it also