“I love you too.” His lip quivered, and tears welled in his eyes.
“Come here.” I hugged him close. “It’s okay.”
He shifted so he was straddling my thighs, our bodies pressed together. “I’m sorry. I don’t know what’s wrong with me.”
“It’s okay, kitten. I get it,” I whispered into his neck.
Riley was the only person who’d ever told me they loved me, at least in the last ten years. My mother had said it when I was small, but I couldn’t recall a single time my father had.
Things had to be even worse for Jules. I imagined his mother had told him that a lot, but I didn’t think Ken was the type to say the words.
It was hard to say it when you never heard it. And it was hard to hear it because it reminded you of how little you mattered to people.
“I love you so much, Ash.” He squeezed me tighter. “I never thought it would happen.”
“That I’d fall for you?” I let out a dark chuckle. “Hell, I’ve been falling for you for years. Just needed a little jump start to realize what was going on.”
“Like hate-fucking me against a wall.” He pulled away, a grin on his pretty lips.
“Or jerking you off while choking you out. Either one.”
He pressed a sweet kiss against my lips. “Take me to your room, Ash.”
I kissed him one more time, then reluctantly let him go.
He slid off my lap and reached for my hand. I let him haul me up, gave him another kiss, then tugged him out of the media room.
“Are we almost there?” Jules asked as we climbed the second set of stairs at the other end of the house. “That feels weird to say in a house, but dang, this place is huge.”
“Yeah, almost.” I pointed to a door up ahead. “That’s me.”
“This is your room?” He looked around as I closed the door behind us. “It’s so… not you.”
He wasn’t wrong.
The room was plain and as boring as the rest of the house, with a queen-sized bed, some basic furniture that cost a pretty penny, and a closet.
That was it.
“It’s my room and a guest room.” I pulled him over to the bed and pushed him onto the off-white comforter.
“You don’t even have your own room in your house?” He gaped at me.
“Nope.” I draped my body over his.
“How many bedrooms does this place have?”
“Seven. And nine bathrooms.”
“And out of a family of five, you couldn’t get your own room when there are seven of them?”
“One for Everleigh, one for Brycen. Dad and Jenna have the master. Then Dad needs a second office—”
“A second office?”
“A man cave. He has an actual office that’s part of the floorplan, but he apparently needed a man cave too.”
“Gotcha.”