When I finally managed to get my feelings under some kind of control, I looked up at him and whispered, “You’re better than good at this, Viper. I never imagined that someone could love me with such passion, such…intensity. You took every idea I had of love, and what it would be like for me, and replaced it with something I could never have even fathomed. How did you do that?”
For the first time since I’d met Viper, a flush stained his cheeks, which made my heart swell close to bursting. God, I loved this side of him, this vulnerability. The trust he so readily handed over to me now, and the ease in which he laid himself bare. It made me want to wrap him in my arms and never let him go.
“Honestly?” Viper said, and when I nodded, he shrugged. “I have no fuckin’ idea.” A burst of laughter escaped me, and he chuckled. “I’m serious. I pinch myself every fucking night when I roll over and see you sleepin’ beside me.”
Viper leaned in and ghosted his lips over the top of mine, and when he went to move away, I reached up to hold his face close. “I’m a grumpy, temperamental bastard on my best day. And you? You’re like a burst of starlight across my dark, jaded soul.”
“Viper…”
“Angel.” Viper stroked a hand over the back of my head, and when he reached my neck, he urged me closer to him. “We have an insane few months ahead with the tour, and then the international leg will start.”
I nodded, knowing that this moment would likely be the most peace we would have for the better part of the year. “I know. There’s so much going on that I can hardly believe it’s my life sometimes. But just thinking about what’s ahead, all the amazing places I’ll get to see with you? It’s exciting.”
“Mhmm. I’ll get to wake up with you in seven different countries—”
“Not that you’re counting.” I grinned against his lips.
“You bet your ass I’m counting. I plan to have you in every damn time zone we land in, Angel. So make sure you get your shuteye on the way, or I’ll be an extra-grumpy motherfucker.”
A shiver racked my body at the thought of tearing up the sheets with Viper in Paris, Rome…London. How was this my life? I felt as though I’d stepped outside myself and fallen into someone else’s world. The world of a lucky bastard who had everything—and more.
“Noted,” I said. “Get sleep, so I can give Viper what he needs to remain civil.”
Viper chuckled and nipped at my lower lip, and when he sat back in the lounger, I followed, and he again wrapped me in his arms.
“You already give me what I need just by being here,” Viper said, and I looked him in the eye. He traced his index finger along my cheekbone and whispered, “You’ve given me something that I didn’t even realize I was looking for.”
When my eyes narrowed slightly, Viper’s lips curved into that half smile, half smirk I loved.
“You’ve given me a home, Angel. A place that I want to go to more than any other place in the world. Because even though I can’t wait to travel and see all of these amazing countries with you, you are my amazing place.”
My heart all but skidded to a stop, but then Viper kick-started it back to life by making it nearly pound right out of my chest.
“I love you, Angel. So fucking much it should probably scare me, but for some reason, it doesn’t. And I don’t care where we are—on a plane, on a bus, in Barcelona, or in New York. I want to see your face before I fall asleep and I want it to be the first thing I see when I wake up.”
Viper’s words swept me up with their strength and power, and still he wasn’t done. I could see it in that fierce gaze of his, and I bit into my lip to keep my chin from quivering, because damn it, my eyes were watering all over again.
“That first time you left my bed, I lost my damn mind because I wasn’t nearly done with you. And every minute I spend with you confirms that that reaction was the right one to have, because I’m never going to be done with you. You’re it for me. My sanctuary. My home. And I want to be that for you. I want my bed to be our bed. My home to be yours.”
“I…” I tried to speak, but my brain was still trying to sift through and comprehend everything Viper had just said to me. Did he just ask me to…
Viper fingered one of my curls and grinned. “What? The idea of moving in with me that horrifying, huh? Left you speechless?”