Page 102 of Elusion

Even with her rewording, she still said it.

We. Love. Each. Other. As long as I know that, I can work with the rest of her concerns.

I move toward her, and she backs herself into a wall.

“What are you doing?”

“For starters,” I say, sweeping the hair away from her face, “we’re nothing like your parents. We never will be.”

“How can you say that? We fight all the time.”

I shake my head at her exaggeration. “We sometimes bicker and discuss our strong differences in opinion. Which will continue because you challenge me more than anyone I’ve ever met. It frustrates the hell out of me, but it’s also the best damn feeling in the world.”

A quick kiss reinforces my words, but I don’t linger and risk losing sight of my goal. If I want her to tell me how she feels, she needs to stop comparing us to the worst example of a couple in modern history.

“When we do fight,” I continue, “we never scream or throw things or make death threats. If we get too heated, we walk away and come back calmer. Ergo, we are not Graham and Lauren.”

“Jordan, you—”

“Exactly. I am Jordan, and you are Callie. I can promise you, we will never be anyone else.”

She gazes up, relaxing against me. “Promise?”

“Promise.” My fingers skim over the bare skin on her collarbone, and her breath falters. Time to make my move before she overthinks everything. “Also, to bring you up to speed, you’ve said we love each other twice now. As in I love you, and you love me.”

Her eyebrows scrunch for a second, but then she laughs and sighs at the same time. “I did, didn’t I.”

She tries to hide her face with a hand, but I pull it away and brush her knuckles over my lips.

“Now you’re going to say the words.”

“And then what?” The worry returns to both her tone and expression. “We take turns hurting the other until we can’t stand the sight of each other?”

“No, baby.” I hit the light switch next to her. “Then I’m going to tell you I love you too, and we’ll make Gibson regret inviting us to the housewarming party by traumatizing her nightlight.”

My vision adjusts to the dim room in time to catch her smile. The perfect smile from the perfect girl who loves me. Now, if she’ll only say it. Her fingers twist through my hair, but I pull away when she tries to kiss me.

“Hey. I’ve laid out a plan for the rest of our night. There’s no way I’m letting you skip any of the steps.”

She breathes once, twice. “I love you, Jordan.”

The world shifts on its axis, and every comet, hurricane, earthquake, and all other natural disasters can feel free to take me out because Callie Henders said the last words I ever want to hear.

“Happy now?”

Immediately followed by sass.

“Oh, I’m fucking ecstatic.”

She dodges away when I try to kiss her. “I remember someone being extremely concerned about following a specific agenda.”

I slide my hands up to her cheeks. “I love you too, Callie. So much it’s borderline inappropriate.”

She bites her lip, unclasping her bra, and gives me about three seconds of a spectacular view before tossing it over the nightlight in the corner. The room without windows or even a decent strip of light at the bottom of the door turns pitch-black. The tip of my nose grazes over hers before I kiss her, this time slow and deliberate. We have all the time in the world now. Except we don’t because of a house full of people on the other side of less than two inches of wood.

I back over at least thirteen objects before I find the counter on the other side of the room. Each time something knocks over, Callie giggles against my mouth. By the time I turn us around, my fingers have dealt with the button on her jeans. I tug them down over her hips along with what feels like a phenomenal pair of panties.

I skim my hands back to her waist and lift her onto the countertop. She cries out when I set her down.

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