Page 54 of Should've Been Us
Lulu’s dark eyes widened slightly, “All the time? Like… you want me to move in withyou?”
“Yes.” He stated firmly andplainly.
“Connor…” Her lips pursed, “Don’t you think that’s a little fast? We’ve only been together a few days and it’s a vacation flingand…”
He rolled her to her back with a grunt, “Don’t call itthat.”
“Con…”
“This is not a fling, Lulu. It’s not a one-night-stand or a multiple-night-stand or friends with benefits or any other of those titles the kids are using these days to keep from calling a spade a spade. This is a relationship and I want it to be real. It is real. Tell me you can accept this for what it is.Please.”
Her eyes softened and she brushed her fingers through his hair as she sighed, “I’m trying. I promise, I’m trying. It’s all just happened sofast.”
“Not for me.” He sighed, rolling back off of her and scrubbing a hand down his face, “I’ve wanted you for so long, Lu. Finally having you? It’s like, finally my real life can start because you’ll be there with me, at my side. That’s what I want. It’s what I’ve alwayswanted.”
“Connor…” She rolled up onto her elbow to look down at him, her beautiful face painted in shadows and moonlight. She leaned down and brushed her lips over his, murmuring in the small space, “You steal another piece of my heart every time you say sweet things likethat.”
“They’re true.” He caught her hair, keeping her close. “They’re alltrue.”
“I know. I used to hate you for that. The way you could see right through me to the truth, the way you had no problem calling me out on it. But I think, even when I hated you for it, I knew you were only trying to help me face it myself. I’m sorry it took me solong.”
“What matters is that we’re here now. Together. And I want us to stay that way when we go home.” He met her eyes seriously, “We’ll work out the details later, just tell me that you’re not going to chalk me up to a wedding hook-up and leave me behind when its time to go back to the realworld.”
“Of course not.” Lulu smiled softly, “Even if I was dumb enough to try it, something tells me you wouldn’t let me go thateasily.”
“Never. I’m not letting you go.Ever.”
His serious statement hung in the air between them until the sound of his phone dinged in the dark space again. It was the tone that alerted him he had a voicemail so he didn’t bother to even look at the phone this time. When he glanced back up at Lulu she was frowning at the thing though and he chuckled slightly at the jealousy she’d never admitto.
“It was Kady that called and I can call her back in the morning. I’m sure it’s nothingimportant.”
Some of the tension in Lulu’s face softened and she relaxed back down beside him on the bed. He let her get comfortable again, sliding his arm around her and pulled her against his side. His woman was a serious cuddler which he found absolutely adorable until the middle of the night when she inevitably smacked him in the face or kneed him in the groin. Not that he’d told her she did those things. He wouldn’t say a word to discourage her from using him as a pillow because he loved the feel of her naked skin againsthis.
“How is your sister doing?” Lulu traced what he thought was a heart across his chest and he smiled at the change inconversation.
“She’s good. I’ve never seen her sohappy.”
“How far along is shenow?”
“Um… what day is it?” He squinted, doing the math in his head quickly, “26weeks?”
“And you’re sure you shouldn’t check your phone? I mean, your sister is pregnant. What if something iswrong?”
“If something was wrong, Sloan would be the one calling me and that thing wouldn’t have stopped ringing until I picked up.” He chuckled, “He’s an absolute wreck and a pain in the ass and he wouldn’t rest until he’d yelled at me to get my asshome.”
“Something tells me you’re enjoying that Kady’s husband is an absolute mess over her pregnancy.” Lulusmirked.
“Who? Me?” He chuckled and then sighed, “Sloan and I have our issues but we’ve worked most of them out for Kady’s sake. All I ever wanted was for her to be happy and he broke her heart. It took me a long time to realize the only way to truly fix it was to let him put it back together too. Took him six fucking years but he did right by her and he’s my familynow.”
“And your partner down at thestation.”
“And my partner down at the station.” He grumbled, making her laugh again, “No matter where I go or what I do, I cannot escape Nick Sloan. But trust me, that wasn’t him calling which means Kady is fine, just checking in with her baby brother as perusual.”
Lulu giggled slightly, “Babybrother?”
“Yep. Doesn’t matter that I’m five inches taller than her and weigh a solid hundred pounds more than she does at the very least, to Kady I’ll always be the baby brother that she helped raise and has to check on at least once a week. I bet she’ll still be calling me that when I’m in my eighties and can’t hear her without an aidanymore.”
That made Lulu laugh and he enjoyed the sweet, husky sound as well as the way her breasts bounced again his chest. Of all the things they’d talked about in the past few days, their families hadn’t come up much. There wasn’t much to say, or at least he hadn’t thought there was considering most of the time people wanted to ask a million questions about his mom and Lulu already knew thatstory.
