Page 235 of Spicy Ever After
The kiss is a slow, simmering kiss. Full of banked heat and promise.
It’s a kiss that is as sure as it is shiver-inducing.
When his tongue slips into my mouth to caress mine, more heat and a few more silent, knee-melting promises pass between us.
When he pulls back, Beck's breaths are coming faster. Mine do too.
“Do you have any idea how amazing you are?” He pants. “How unbelievably perfect you are?”
I can’t help it. I snort right in his face. “I’m about as perfect as clown shoes.”
Beck just shakes his head, but he does it chuckling. “You’re funny. Honest… Real. So talented and so ridiculously humble. Everything about you is beautiful and life-giving. I feel sorry for anyone who doesn’t think you are the best person they’ve ever met. What could be more perfect than that? I?—”
I press two fingers to his lips because my eyes are stinging. “I’m too tired. You say anything else, and I’ll fall to pieces.” I blink fast so he knows it’s close.
Beck makes a face that says this isn’t the threat I think it is. He tugs my fingers from his lips and squeezes them.
“Just one more thing and I’ll take you up to bed. Okay?” He waits for my consent, and I swear it’s as sexy as the first time he asked to kiss me.
I swallow hard against the rising lump in my throat and nod.
“Hattie, you came into my life and showed me everything I was missing. Laughter. Affection. Balance. Hope. A love so pure and deep and essential, I know I won’t ever want to go on without it.” Beck shakes his head adamantly. “Sometimes, I imagine what would’ve happened if you hadn’t messaged the website that day after we met, and it scares the fucking hell out of me. Because I can’t. I can’t fathom missing out on this—” He gestures between us. “In my life… I can’t imagine missing out on you.”
It’s dark, but not so dark that I can’t see the look in his eyes. Fear. Reverence. Love.
I throw my arms around his neck and stop him from saying anything more with my mouth this time.
I wreck us both with this kiss.
When I pull back, we’re panting even harder.
“You… Beck Olivier…” I say between breaths, “are the best thing that’s ever happened to me. Better than family. Better than sewing machines. Better than oxygen. Because I feel more like myself when I’m with you than with anyone else in this whole, messy universe.”
Tears streak down my cheeks, but I ignore them. I’m crying again. Big deal.
“I knew it the day we met. I knew from the way you treated me that afternoon with so much acceptance and attention. You saw me and didn’t for a moment try to make me calmer or quieter or… less me. I knew I had to try to find you, if nothing else, to tell you what that one encounter meant to me. I knew I’d met someone remarkable, but I didn’t know I’d met my person. My best friend. My love.” I laugh a little through my tears. “It was a really fucking good surprise.”
Beck tilts his head back, laughing. He brings his gaze back to me, shaking his head. “I think every day with you is going to be a really fucking good surprise.”
I wipe my eyes. “You’re up for that?” Is it possible that he’s just as excited about all that lies ahead of us as I am?
In the next instant, he’s kissing me again, and I take it for his answer, so when he pulls back a long moment later and looks into me with all the fierce love his amber eyes can hold, his words are another really fucking good surprise.
“Hell, yes, Hattie. I’m up for that.”
And Hell-Yes-Hattie-I’m-Up-For-That officially becomes my new favorite phrase.
Epilogue
BECK
Fifteen Months Later
Hattie isn’t a fan of driving on the interstate. Even if it’s the quickest way from the farm to Lafayette.
That’s one reason she didn’t choose property in the northside Target shopping center for Hattie’s Attic. Because she’d have to take I-49 and I-10 to get there.
Two interstates and a clover leaf. Deal-breaker.
