Page 104 of 'Til All the Seas Run Dry

Her voice broke on that last sentence. He began to roll toward her, but she exclaimed, “Stop!”

He froze.

She took a breath. “Please. If you hold me, I’ll never get this out.”

“Okay.” He shifted to his back once more.

“I’ve been so afraid this month. What if I stayed and you left again? What if I took a chance? On you? And it just brought me more heartbreak? Because I’ve been heartbroken for so long, and I—I can’t do it again, Callum.”

“Jory,” he murmured, but she didn’t stop.

“What if I’m not enough? That’s what I thought. That’s what I worried about. And so I didn’t tell you about the apartment. Because I was afraid. You have everything in the entire world. How can I possibly compete with that?”

He rolled, fast as a flash, and gathered her into his arms, burying his face in the perfectly carved space where her neck met her shoulder.

“I only want you. I dinnae care about anything else. The cars. The houses. The money. I just want you,” he said, his voice mumbled but the press of his lips against her skin.

She threaded her arms up and wrapped them around his neck, holding his head close. He shifted lower, resting his ear against the center of her chest, where her heart beat a steady tattoo. He closed his eyes.

“I know,” she said.

He squeezed his eyes more tightly shut, waiting for the “but.”

“I’m giving Niamh the apartment because I want the space to figure out how to hold onto everything at the same time.”

Again, faster than a flash of light, he was over her, pinning her to the mattress, his elbows on either side of her shoulders and his mouth hovering mere inches over hers.

“What?”

She smiled, wide and brilliant. “I want you too.”

“I’ll give it all up. We’ll go away together,” he said, frantically peppering kisses all over her cheeks, her forehead. “We’ll leave it all behind.”

“Don’t be ridiculous,” she said with a little shriek. “Callum, stop it. I mean it. Oh my god, please stop!”

He pulled back. “Stop because you dinnae like it?”

“Stop because we’re still talking! And the moment you stick your tongue in my mouth, the talking will be over.”

He dropped his mouth to her ear and said, “I’d like verra much to stick my tongue other places than your mouth.”

She pushed against his chest and whined, “Callum. Please.”

“Cannae we talk after?”

Jory snorted, the sound so familiar that he grinned. “No,boss,we can’t.”

“Mmmm,” he said, burying his face in her neck again and kissing his way up to her ear. “I like it when you call me boss. How about this?” he said, nipping her ear lobe. “I’ll give you anything you want. There. Now we dinnae need to talk.”

“You don’t even know what I want.”

“You said you want me. I dinnae care about the rest. You can have it. Whatever ye want.”

She slid her palms down his back.

“What if I want to move to Florida?”

He shuddered, and she laughed. “Anything, Jory.”