She makes a humming sound and shrugs a shoulder as if it’s no big deal. It is though. I know it.
I shift and cup one side of her face, making her look up at me. “I’m sorry. I know the words aren’t enough, but I am. I’m sorry. I was an ass. You never deserved it, Reese. Not even a little bit. It was all me. It was my problem, my stress, my hang-ups. I swear to you, I’ll spend the rest of my life making it up to you.”
Her eyes widen as she sucks in a sharp breath. “The rest of your life? Anderson, we’re neighbors, that really isn’t necessary.”
Before she’s even done speaking, I’m already shaking my head. “Reese,” I groan, “you don’t understand.”
“What don’t I understand?”
There’s a spark of something like hope in her eyes and I know this is my shot. This is the moment I lay it all out there and do what I should have done from the first moment I met her.
“You’re mine, Sunshine. I knew it the moment I met you, but I had my head too far up my ass to recognize it.” I glance over at Boomer who has shifted on his bed and looking between us like we’re a soap opera existing for his entertainment. I look back at my girl and smile when I realize she’s frozen in place. “I wanted to prove to you this week I don’t hate Boomer and am more than some asshole who complains and grunts and only thinks of himself. I wanted to prove to you I’m better than that because you deserve better.”
She’s blinking rapidly as if she’s trying to wake herself up, her body rigid. I lean into her and kiss her forehead. I kiss her cheeks. My hand glides up her body and wraps around the back of her neck, holding her steady. I’ll always hold her steady.
With my lips hovering above hers, I whisper, “Breathe.”
She gasps in a breath, and I pounce. I take her lips in a bruising kiss, pouring everything I am and everything I want into it. I want her to feel the warmth of my feelings, of the future I yearn for with her. I want her to never doubt.
I pull her onto my laps so she’s straddling me and the press of her body against mine is almost too much. It’s fucking perfect. I groan into her mouth when she grinds down against my cock.
Fuck.
I need her. I’m going to make this woman mine.