Page 40 of Monsters, Vows, and Growls
I shook my head. “You didn’t lose me because of the bear, Patrick. You lost me because you broke up with me.”
His jaw tightened. “I know.”
“But I get it now. I really do.” I cupped his cheek again, thumb brushing just under his eye. “And I promise, from now on, I want all of it. You. Thorne. Everything.”
He leaned in, pressing a kiss to my forehead that felt more like a vow than anything either of us had said out loud.
“I’m yours, Ells,” he said against my skin. “Always was. Always will be. And I swear that I will prove it to you for the rest of our lives.”
My throat clenched. My chest felt too full. Like there wasn’t enough room inside me for everything I was feeling.
“I’m yours too,” I whispered. “Even when I didn’t want to be. Even when I tried not to be.”
He kissed me again. This time it was slow and lingering, just as tender as it always used to be. Then we just lay there, tangled in each other, wrapped in a blanket of promises, sweat, and heartbeats trying to find their rhythm again. For the first time in a decade, I wasn’t holding anything back. Patrick’s fingers drifted lazily over my bare shoulder.
“I missed you every damn day,” he murmured. “Even when I tried not to.”
“I know,” I whispered. “I missed you, too. Even when I was pretending to be over it.”
He smiled softly, eyes still closed. “You did a good job pretending.”
I scoffed. “I cried into a salad once because the dressing reminded me of you. So let’s not pretend I was emotionally stable.”
He laughed, warm and low, his chest shaking against mine. “Caesar?”
“Lemon vinaigrette. Which is insulting, honestly. You weren’t even a vinaigrette guy.”
“I’m whatever the hell you need me to be,” he said. “Even lemony and suspiciously healthy.”
I laughed so hard I had to bury my face in his chest again, tears slipping out for an entirely different reason now.
“I love you,” I said into his skin.
“I love you more,” he said without missing a beat.
“Impossible.”
“Watch me.”
We lay there for a while longer, our legs tangled, his fingers drifting through my hair like he couldn’t quite believe I was real. Eventually, I pulled the sheet up a little higher, just to keep the moment cocooned between us.
“You know what we should do tomorrow?” I asked.
“Don’t say hike,” he groaned.
“I was going to saymake waffles,but now that you’ve insulted me, Iamsaying hike.”
Something rumbled so hard inside him, I felt it. "What was that?"
“Thorne objects,” Patrick answered dryly.
“Tell Thorne he can have an extra waffle.”
He grinned. “He says we have a deal.”
I smiled into his skin and let myself close my eyes. This bear shifter thing was still weird, like we had a ménage à trois going or something like that, but strangely, it didn't bother me. Thorne was part of Patrick, and I loved him. For the first time in years, the future didn’t look like a cliff. It looked like a trail. And maybe—just maybe—we were finally walking it together.
Suddenly, he sat up, with a serious expression painted on his face, "Marry me."
