Page 106 of Nothing to Fear

Because tonight had proved they may not always have time to waste.

“You make me feel like—I’ve never felt like this, the way I feel when I’m with you.”

“I told you, it feels right.”

“It does and I—that scared me, I think. I didn’t want to be the stupid airhead tripping over myself for the GQ model, but I—I am tripping over myself for you, Darroch Breckenridge. I want to be with you.”

“You’re my girl.”

“I want us to do this. Together. Us. I want to be your partner, to face whatever the future has for us, together.”

His next kiss was a smile. “Baby, I’ve been yours since before you offered me your cherry.”

“Even if the sex sucks, we’ll work through it.”

His quiet laugh vibrated through her. “The sex won’t suck.”

“But we’ll work through it, won’t we? I don’t want us to lose each other, to give up, because something isn’t perfect or there’s a flaw that—”

“Partners,” he said, his fingers digging into her skull. “It’s what we both want. You know what I come with, my ridiculous family—”

“I come with no family. None I’d be proud to share with you.”

“Perfect doesn’t matter. Real matters,” he said. “Family, work, whatever we do in our spare time, our friends, future family, partners are united. All we have to do is listen to each other.”

“Respect each other.”

“Exactly.”

“Like your mom and dad?”

Her smile bred another laugh from his lips. “Yeah, just like them.”

“You know, thirty-five years isn’t a bad innings.”

“No, it’s not.”

She squinted. “Not sure about the sixteen kids though.”

“It starts with one, we’ll go from there.”

“That’s about ten steps ahead of where we are,” she said and breathed out, closing her eyes as she rested her head against his face. “I thought we were all screwed up after Jeremy called.”

“You thought we were done? That why you thought I’d ditched out on the move?”

“I thought we were in a fight.”

“Even if we were, it doesn’t change the foundation of us. We’re still together. Our commitment remains solid. We just make up and have lots of sex after we’ve calmed down.”

“Oh, do we?”

“Yep. New policy. We keep our word and follow through. We always follow through.”

His hand went from her hair to her hip and before she could object, he’d boosted her on top of him.

“Darroch—”

“Shh,” he said, squeezing her hips to pull her higher. “Forget about the hospital—”

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