Page 62 of Creep

My thighs clenched at his words. And why wouldn’t he? That didn’t sound like such a bad idea to me.

He must have seen the thought on my face because he smiled, shook his head again, and pulled back, helping me straighten my clothes.

I pouted up at him.

He tapped my lip. “Put that away, little brat.”

I scrunched my face up even more, and he laughed, grabbing the flowers from my hand and placing them down on the kitchen island.

“I don’t have a vase to put them in,” I said regretfully.

He shrugged. “It’s okay. We can buy one on our way back.”

“They’ll probably wilt by then,” I said.

He stepped closer to me, pressing a kiss on the corner of my lips. “I’ll buy you more flowers.”

“Yeah?” I asked teasingly. Flowers weren’t cheap, but I was sure he could afford them.

“Yeah,” he answered seriously. “I’ll buy you flowers every day for the rest of my life.”

“The rest of your life, huh?” I asked, wrapping my arms around his waist and pulling him toward me. I tilted my head back to look up at him, loving the height difference between us. I was on the average side of tall at five-four, but he was tall enough that the top of my head didn’t reach his shoulder.

“Yes,” he answered gruffly.

I looked at him strangely. The rest of his life—that was a commitment.

“You shouldn’t say things you don’t mean,” I said.

He frowned. “I did mean it.”

I opened my mouth, my eyes taking in his face, before I shut it, shaking my head. That was just crazy talk. We were barely going on our second date. My feelings for him might be intense and different from any other man I had ever been with, but to say something like that? I had no words.

I pulled away from him. “We should go.”

He looked like he wanted to say something more but didn’t, letting me pull him out of the apartment.

* * *

The driveto our hiking trail was long, but the time passed by quickly. It was still early enough in the morning that I knew we wouldn’t overheat, and since we were going in the middle of the week, there was hardly anyone around.

I watched Mael’s side profile as he put his car into park, admiring just how perfect he was at every angle. No one should look this beautiful, but Mael did, and I found myself completely and wholly obsessed with him.

He smiled and, without looking away from the road, said, “You’re staring.”

“I was thinking just how unfair it is that you have no bad sides.”

He laughed, shooting me a bemused look.

I rolled my eyes. “Oh, come on. Don’t tell me no one has ever told you that you’re good-looking.”

He shrugged, not denying it. “No one who mattered, anyway. Until you.”

“I matter?” I asked.

“More than anyone and anything in this world.”

There he went again, saying things he shouldn’t say to me on our second date. I didn’t want it—not because I didn’t like it, but because I didn’t want to get my hopes up high only to have the rug pulled out from underneath me later on.

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