Page 113 of A Brush with Love
All centered on that singular point of pleasure where their lips met. They were a million shattered pieces kissed back into place.
EPILOGUE
6 MONTHS LATER
“Get. Off. Me.”
Harper pushed against Dan’s deadweight stretched along her body. His laugh pressed her further into the mattress.
“Let me sleep in peace, you monster,” she said. She’d just finished a brutal on-call rotation at the hospital, and had dragged herself to Dan’s apartment, only to sleep for sixteen hours straight.
“I’ve made coffee,” he purred into her ear. “Will you get out of bed for coffee?”
Harper smiled against his chest but shook her head. “I don’t want to get up.”
Dan pushed up onto his hands and looked down at her. His eyes narrowed and she giggled in anticipation. He dove back down, rubbing his day-old scruff against her neck without mercy.
She shrieked and laughed, thumping her fists on his back.
“I know what will wake you up,” he whispered against her skin, pulling back to fix her with a lazy grin before dropping a kiss against her neck.
He moved down her body slowly, lovingly, placing kisses along every inch of her. Her fingers, the backs of her knees, the soles of her feet—nothing was spared from his devoted onslaught.
And then the asshole started tickling her. Mercilessly. Torturing her until she shrieked and giggled and swore on Judy’s life that she’d get out of bed, dear God, just stop! She loved every second of it.
Pleased with his work, Dan planted a kiss on her lips then got out of bed.
“Up, lazy bug. It’s our day off.”
With her on-call rotations, and Dan’s own work demands, their schedules didn’t align as much as either would like, but they always sucked up every second of their days off together, laughing and running around the city like two maniacs in love, and today would be no different.
Dan stood in the square of light pouring in through the window and stretched while Harper admired her usual morning view. She’d never get tired of looking at him. Lean limbs reaching toward the ceiling, a hand running through mussed hair, his radiant energy brightening the room.
Even though they didn’t officially live together, they spent most nights at one person’s place or the other, creating little happy nests in both small apartments.
Harper loved his patterns and quirks. Her heart swelled in tenderness when he’d fumble his long legs into sweatpants, at the way he stripped off his socks at the end of the day. The pad of his steps through the apartment was the soundtrack to her happiest moments.
“I love you,” she said.
He turned and grinned, dimple and all. “Say it again.”
“I love you,” Harper repeated.
“One more time.”
“I love you!”
And she did. Saying the words for the first time opened the door to a new form of freedom, a giddy high that only increased with time. She couldn’t stop saying it.
Good morning—I love you.
Do we need coffee from the store?—I love you.
Why can’t you ever remember to put the toilet seat down, you gross boy?—I love you.
“Love ya back, Dr. Horowitz,” Dan said with a grin, turning and moving across the studio to the kitchen. His intercom buzzed and he answered it while he was passing.
“Delivery from—”
