Page 98 of The Dating Pact
Claiming each room as their own, laughing with bewilderment at the odd pieces of furniture or pictures left by the previous owners, who according to the note ‘hoped they had a use for them’. More likely, a ploy to get rid of their last-minute junk. Alex and Ellie didn’t mind; they even decided to keep one crazy picture of a parrot with a cigar in the downstairs loo as a memento of the day.
Ellie’s chest tightened as they approached the nursery. She remembered Alex’s statement that he wasn’t ready when they’d last been here.
‘We could paint it grey or white. Make it into my sewing room,’ she suggested as they stood in the doorway.
Alex entered the room with one confident step and an easy smile. ‘No, it’s better as a nursery, don’t you think? When you’re ready, of course.’
Ellie cleared her throat, feeling as if the floor were tilting. She tightened her hold on his hand and followed him inside. ‘I don’t want you to rush into anything, especially anything you’re unsure about. I love you. I can wait until you’re ready, and if that’s never then I’d still rather have you.’
He chuckled, wrapping his arms around her waist. ‘I think you misunderstood me before. I wasn’t ready to face living in a family home alone. After Savannah, the idea depressed me.’
Her insecurity reared its ugly head and whispered dark thoughts in her ear. But with Alex, she wasn’t afraid to takethose dark thoughts and push them into the light. ‘I’m not a consolation prize?’ she asked.
His hands smoothed down her spine to cup her bottom and pull her close against him. ‘This is what I want. With you, and only you. I love you, Eliza Dorothy Jones, you are everything to me. Everything I will ever need and more.’
She giggled at the use of her full name. She used to hate the cliché of living in a flower shop with Eliza as a first name. But Alex thought it the most perfect name in the world, and who was she to argue with perfection? ‘I love you. So much.’
He bent his head and kissed her thoroughly until her heart was racing. So different from their chaste kiss months ago on the roof. Ellie vowed to kiss Alex deeply in every room of their new home.
‘Shouldn’t we wait for the bed to arrive?’ she giggled when he started to peel off her clothes – although her own eager fingers had already made up her mind.
‘No,’ replied Alex, chucking his t-shirt on the floor with a slap. ‘When have we ever needed a bed?’
Ellie laughed. ‘What about our dating rules? PG kisses only… no tongues… no sex.’ She ran her fingers slowly up the wall of his chest.
‘Fuck that,’ he growled, cupping her face and tasting her mouth with a kiss that was anything but chaste.
The truth was, they didn’t need a bed or rules or even the world’s approval. They had each other, andthatwould always be more than enough.
