“Whoa!” I breathe. I take a minute, I don’t want to kill his buzz…but there is no way he’s buying us a house solo.
Chapter Nineteen
Liv
Two sounds perfect.
“Danny, you know I can’t let you use all of your life savings and bring nothing to the table. That’s your money.”
“It’s our money, Liv.” He gives me a stern look. “I’m serious.”
“God Danny, you don’t know what you’re saying.” I rub my forehead. “There’s so much we haven’t talked about. You can’t just go off on the ‘What’s mine is yours’ speech.”
“Liv, think about why I have all that money, why I haven’t settled down. Consciously or not, I was holding out for you. That money is our future, alone I don’t need it. Without you I…I want to share it with you, that’s it. Sorry, but like it or not, what’s mine IS yours.” He runs his thumb across my knuckles.
I watch him carefully, he’s so serious, I almost want to laugh. I’m really trying to loosen up, but this..?
“I can’t leave the money sitting there, it’s too much, I need to invest it in something. A house is a reasonable investment isn’t it?” He thinks for a minute. “If we stayed here forever, I would be living in a house you own. I want to have a home with both our names on the deeds. I want to do this for us, I’ve waited half my life for an ‘us’ to do it for.” He studies his fingers, then looks up at me and seems more sure of himself. “Besides, how would we manage in the flat with a baby?”
My heart misses a beat. “I…I thought…I…I didn’t know if that’s what you wanted anymore.” I manage to stutter out.
“Of course it’s what I still want, you goof!” his shy smile reappearing. Then it falls. “Unless you’ve changed your mind.”
I shake my head slowly, my own shy smile growing.
“Good. So you see why we need the extra rooms?”
“But four?”
Danny laughs. “Maybe two. We can keep the other rooms for Jen and your sister when they visit.” He looks at me with such hope.
“Two sounds perfect.” I smile. Danny wraps his fingers into mine and we sit quietly, digesting this new turn in the rollercoaster of our lives.
“Before, in LA...” Danny interrupts, “…when we talked about, you know, a family.” He fidgets. “We said soon.”
“Yeah, we did,” I reply, feeling the flutter of nerves in my stomach begin again.
“That was almost four months ago.” He hesitates. “So…is now too soon?”
My heads starts to shake slowly, involuntarily, before I even really process it. “Not really,” I admit, although I’ve tried not to think about it too much.
“I was thinking now that you’re getting better…I mean your body can probably spare the calcium.” He smiles.
“Is that what you were waiting for?” I laugh.
“Yeah, well, I guess. I would have suggested it sooner, but your bones were healing. I figured it could wait.”
“And now?”
“Now…I badly want to get you pregnant.”
A thrill shoots through me and I’m sure my cheeks flush.
“Whenever you’re ready, that is.” He adds.
“I’m ready.” And like that, I know I am. I want it all with him. I know I’ve forced myself not to hope too much, but this isn’t a vain hope. It’s being offered, something tangible and it makes me so happy. He still hasn’t mentioned marriage, which feels okay with me. I tried not to think too much about that either, but the future together and a family, that is all I ever wanted with him. Marriage wouldn’t make us complete, but I know a baby would.
“So will you let me buy us a house?” he pleads.
I turn to face him again. His eyes fixed on me in anticipation. He wants this so much. He wants to be the provider. Even my deepest urges to resist this can’t deny him. “Okay.” I nod taking his hand again. “But, you have to accept that it works both ways. What is mine is yours too.” His smile is the most perfect I’ve ever seen.
He pulls at my hands until I lift up out of my seat and fall into his lap.
“I love you so much.” He breathes into my ear as his arms hold me tight. A shiver runs down my spine leaving all of my hairs standing on end. If this is all it takes to see that expression on his face, he can buy all the houses he likes and I’ll fill them with children. My stomach flips at this thought. It’s primal and almost against everything I thought I believed, but I want so badly to be pregnant for this man.
He sighs long and loud. “You have no idea how happy you’ve just made me.”
“I think I do. I feel the same way.” I grin. A contented silence seems to fall on us. My thoughts wander to us in that glossy house. I’m not, well, glossy in the slightest, but I can envisage how it could accommodate my individuality…OUR individuality. I would enjoy the challenge.
“We can look at other houses if you like.” Danny interrupts my thoughts.
“I was just starting to picture us there.” I smirk.
Danny laughs. “Sometimes I don’t know which way is up when I’m with you.”
“That’s how I like it. So are you going to tell me how much it costs?”
I pull back from Danny in shock, I can’t believe a car could sell for so much money and I can’t believe what he has saved. My shock deepens when I hear the price of the house, but once he explains that his inheritance from his grandparents’ house will pay for almost half and he can more than cover the rest, I begin to relax. It will take some time for me to be fully at ease with a free ride, but he makes a compelling argument. Even after forking out for his ambitious furnishing plans, he will still have savings, which makes me feel better. All he wants is to make us a comfortable home and this will definitely be that.
“There’s no chain, it could be ours in a few weeks.” He nuzzles into my neck, inhaling deeply, then his lips make contact with the sensitive skin there. I begin to wonder if he wants to get started on the baby thing right away. “I need to come off the pill,” I say, suddenly realising it was out loud.
He nods, not breaking contact with his lips as his fingers travel up my leg. I exhale when his tongue runs over my earlobe, rolling my head backwards. I manage to suppress my moan, remembering where we are.
“Danny…please.” Although even I can’t tell if I’m asking him to cut out it because we are at work or for the love of God take me right here.
He fortunately interprets the former and reluctantly withdraws his exploring mouth. Inhaling, then exhaling deeply to gain his composure, Danny seems to come back to earth. I go to stand up, but he grabs me back. “Give me a minute,” he murmurs, then I feel the full extent of his arousal press against me.
“Oh!” I giggle, “Okay.”
“It’s your fault.”
“How?”
“Apart from being the most beautiful girl a lucky bastard like me has ever seen you mean?” He grins. “You’re going to stop taking the pill.”
“And that’s sexy, how?”
A lascivious look flashes across his face. “You’re going to let me get you pregnant. Everything about that is sexy.”
I shake my head in amusement, as I notice Max approaching us.
“Am I interrupting?” he asks, sitting before we answer. “You two look pleased with yourselves.”
I catch Danny flashing him a look that says ‘she went for it’. Max laughs when they realise I’ve rumbled them. “Am I always the last to know everything?” I moan.
