Page 37 of All I Need

With great effort, I pull my eyes away from her mouth, darting them back and forth between hers. “I just knew.”

“How is that possible? You didn’t know anything about me.”

I shrug and take a risk. I take one step forward and reach out, grasping her hand. “Maybe a part of me did.”

Her fingers tighten around mine and then she shocks the shit out of me when she pulls me closer, releasing my hand so she can wrap her arms around my middle. My arms naturally slide around her slender frame and I lean my head forward, inhaling the sweet flowery scent of her shampoo. “Thank you,” she whispers against my chest.

“For what?” I murmur, her hair tickling my chin.

She looks up at me and I have to suck in a breath at the vision. “For being honest. For helping me today. For not judging me for sleeping in a 90’s porno shoot bedroom for the past two years,” she adds on a giggle.

Laughter bursts out of me and soon both our bodies are shaking against each other. Which is both a blessing and a curse knowing I can’t do a single thing about it. “Oh man. That was the worst. How did you sleep in it? It looked like a jungle safari threw up in there.”

She squeezes the skin on my back through my shirt and leans back, her eyes glinting with humor.

Happy.

That’s the first word that comes to my mind.

I don’t know if it’s in reference to her or me, or maybe both.

“I was so embarrassed when you saw that,” she grumbles, her cheeks turning a rosy shade of pink to emphasize her point.

I brush a thumb against her cheek, not being able to stop myself from touching her with more intimacy than I should be given. “Stop. Whatever that was, it’s behind you. We’re moving on, yeah?”

“Yeah,” she says softly, her eyes drifting down to my mouth then back up again.

Last night I wanted to kiss her.

Right now?

I want to kiss her. As in, bend her over backwards, change our lives forever with a kiss that leaves us both breathless and aching for more, kiss her.

“You made it back home.” the sound of Miss Polly’s cheerful voice makes us jerk apart quickly.

She’s not even trying to hide the knowing smile that’s spread across her cheeks. Ellie and I disentangle our arms from each other.

“We did,” Ellie says with a glance in my direction before moving to her car and lifting the back hatch.

Miss Polly shuffles her way to Ellie, pulls her into her arms. “Welcome home, sweet girl.”

I grab whatever I can from the SUV and turn toward the house, leaving them alone while I gather my own thoughts.

I’m developing feelings for a woman I just met. My entire life I’ve put others’ needs first and for the first time, I’m considering leaping before thinking. Wanting something—someone—for just me. And worse yet, I’m praying that she’ll be ready to leap right along with me.

The feelings I have for Ellie should freak me out, make me panic. But it’s the opposite. A sense of peace I’ve never felt, not even when I’m with Grayson, is settling over me. I was content with my life. Liked it the way it was. But now, I know something was missing. It’s as if my entire life I’ve been waiting for Ellie to appear and now that she has, I can only hope she’s here to stay.

I want to get to know her. Understand her on a deeper level, not just physical. Yes, I want that part of her too. But it’s more than that—it’s wanting to know her dreams and hopes for her future, and helping her achieve them. It’s wanting to know her favorite color and flavor of ice cream, what shows she wants to binge watch and what junk food she eats while she does it. Everything. I want to know everything and be a part of it.

I place the bags I carried inside on the floor of the bedroom that I know she’s been staying in. The bedroom already smells like her, the sweet combination of citrus and lavender. Her scent permeating the air like she’s lived here for years. Even the house knows she belongs here. Accepting her into its fold.

I spin on my heels, knowing I need to get out of this room before I do something stupid. Like smell her pillow. But fuck. The feel of her in my arms is engrained in my memory, making me strain behind the zipper of my shorts. The fullness of her breasts pressed against my chest, the gentle curve of her hips that I couldn’t help myself from running my palms over. She’s the perfect combination of woman.

“Not now,” I growl to my crotch, willing my body to stop reacting so quickly to her.

I quickly make my way down the hallway and push out the back door of the house, sucking in a deep breath of fresh air as soon as I’m outside. But of course that’s a mistake also because now that I’m back here, all I can think about is the last time I sat out here with her.

I take off my hat and tug on my short strands of hair. I know I’m already getting in over my head with this woman. Before I can worry myself further, I turn around and go back to get another load of Ellie’s things. Because she’s moving here. And will soon be working for me.

Shit.

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