Page 56 of Townshipped
“Yeah. He can sleep with you.”
She beams. I turn my eyes away from her because even a glance tempts me to want so much more with her. More than this snippet of time. More than stolen kisses. More than she can offer me—at least right now.
“I meant to ask you earlier, but the guys were here. Do you want me to call you Mal now?”
She pauses, staring down at the movement of her hand over Granger’s fur. When she looks up her brow has a furrow, and her lips are set in a firm line.
“It may have been a name or nickname. Mal fits me somehow, but more like a shirt I kept from years back and barely wear now. I feel like Em here.”
I nod. Why am I relieved by her decision to use the name I’ve been calling her? Maybe it means she’s choosing me. I can only hope when she gains back more of her past, there’s a chance she’ll prefer what we have here together over returning to whatever she had before.
Maybe she can find a job in town. I can help her find a place to stay. Though, the idea of her anywhere off this farm doesn’t sit well with me. But we can’t keep up our current arrangement once she’s able to resume a normal life.
I can’t believe this train of thought. This whole situation makes it seem like we’ve known one another far longer than we have, and she feels far more integral to my life than I ever thought a woman would.
“Aiden?”
She stands and walks toward me.
I brace myself, placing my hands on my hips to keep myself from reaching out for her.
“Yeah?”
“You seem …”
She takes a deep breath and keeps coming nearer.
“You seem like you’ve got the weight of the world on your shoulders.”
Another step closer.
Her soft voice skates across my skin as if she’s actually touching me. The hairs on my arm rise.
“Am I … is it …?”
Another step. She’s only two feet away. I could reach out to her from here, brush her soft skin, run my hand down her hair, pull her in toward me.
I rub the back of my neck.
Her voice drops to nearly a whisper. “Is it too much? Having me here?”
“What? No!”
I shake my head. She’s so close I can smell her flowery scent. She’s like springtime, with blossoms and rain and I’d like nothing more than to run out and get drenched in the downpour.
“No,” I say again more calmly. “You aren’t a burden. That’s the last thing you are. You’ve … You’re …”
She looks up at me, only inches away now, and I feel the warmth of her surrounding me. Her lashes flutter, highlighting the crystalline of her eyes.
Her nearness consumes the space between us, our breath mingling, unspoken thoughts seeming exposed here in this quiet early morning haven. Whenever it’s only the two of us like this, I’m certain I’d go anywhere and do anything for this woman.
“You’re …”
I don’t finish my thought because Em raises up on her toes and brushes a kiss across my cheek. She whispers, “You’re all that too. To me.”
I turn my face, cup her cheeks and find her lips. Soft and inviting as I remember them. I don’t kiss her like a starving man this time. I’m careful. I could break her or us. Everything around us feels fragile, but what’s happening between us feels more certain than anything I’ve known.
Em kisses me back, moving her mouth over mine and wrapping her arms behind my waist. She fists the back of my T-shirt and holds on like she might lose me. Never.
