“What isn’t there to think about?” She adjusted her glasses.
God, there was nothing cuter. The red frames matched her dress and her lipstick.
We stood impossibly close, but I shoved my hands into my pockets to refrain from touching. “How about for one goddamn minute we stop thinking about everything and enjoy this huge fucking revelation dropped into our laps? You know how many times I heard that story growing up? Told my mom she was crazy? Laughed it off?”
Natalie stared, long and hard, studying my features, then slumped. She took one step back, then another.
“You are not walking away from me again.” I followed, matching her stride for stride. My guts knotted. Unnerving, that invisible string between us. “Don’t run from this.”
Still inching away, but letting me gain ground, she whispered, “This is crazy, Cole.”
“Crazy or fate?”
“I can’t leave my job,” she whispered, her argument lackluster at best.
“I can’t either.”
She pursed her dewy red lips. Nodded. “So there we have it. What’s the point of pursuing a relationship when we live in different states?”
“The point is…the point is…” The truth I’d buried deep rose from the depths of my sheltered spirit, a confession given wings. A deliverance. “I love you, Natalie King.” I grabbed her shoulders, not to keep her from running, but to ground myself before I spiraled out of orbit. “I fell head over heels that day in the coffee shop. One look. One fucking look, and I fell. We connected. There was something there. Something greater than you and me, or Victoria, or Holden Oswald Travers the Third.”
“God, I always hated that name,” came a gruff voice from my left. Natalie’s uncle landed a firm pat on my shoulder as he passed, drink in hand, swagger unsteady, his timing pretty damn spot on.
Natalie took advantage of the interruption, turning her face and swiping her cheek.
I ducked to catch her gaze, missing that connection. Her eyes on me? Fuck. Better than any drug.
A tear rolled down her cheek, and I lifted my hand to catch the moisture, but she caught my fingers in her own.
“Say it again.” Her voice broke.
My chest cracked open, spilling confetti hearts, bright flowers, puppies and kittens and, fuck, a rainbow, too.
I’d give her those words a thousand times. Every day. For eternity. “I love you.”
“Again.” She lifted her eyes to mine.
“I love you,” I repeated, my throat thick with emotion. “I’ve loved you since the day you were born.”
My beautiful Natalie nodded, sucking her lips between her teeth, face scrunching.
I owned those tears.
Tucking her safely to my chest, I escorted her around the corner and down a long hallway, away from prying eyes.
Cupping those drenched, rosy cheeks, I lifted her face and drank the salt from her lips, our kiss slow and tender.
A familiar tune floated down the hallway. Only the piano at first, then a sultry voice, belting the lyrics to “My Way.”
Mona King.
Natalie dropped her head to my shoulder, her breath warming my neck. “My cousins have arrived. We should join the party.”
“I’m not ready to share you.” I assumed the position, her left hand in my right, my left hand at her waist, and twirled my girl around the empty space.
“How’d you learn to dance?”
“Mom insisted. If I was going to be a fighter, I needed the grace of a dancer.”
“Remind me to thank her later.”
God, she killed me. I’d dropped my bleeding heart at her feet, and she wanted small talk. Whatever. I’d give her anything.
“Can you believe this shit with our mothers?”
Natalie didn’t answer, instead studying my face, her eyes liquid and worried.
I spun, once, twice, until her back hit the wall. Loved her that way, safe between my arms, breathing hard and blushing. “Whatever doubts you have floating around that head of yours, stop. I’ve got this. I’ve got us. We’ll figure this out.”
She opened her mouth to argue. I silenced her with a kiss.
God, the way she kissed, taking all that I gave, giving it back tenfold, her entire body getting involved, melding to mine.
I had no plan other than holding her and taking my fill, but then she coiled her arms around my neck, hopped up, and hooked those sexy legs around my waist, and my sole purpose became making that woman shatter in all the best possible ways.
“Fuck. I need you. Right now.”
The vixen moaned, grinding against my erection, and…Jesus…fuck. My knees buckled.
“Good God!” A sultry cry bounced off the marbled walls. “Sorry. So sorry to—Natalie?”
“Shit.” I laughed. What else could I do?
“Oh, God.” Natalie dropped her feet to the floor, and I held her steady and close, blocking her from view until she righted her skirt.
She looked up at me, biting her lip and laughing, too.
“Hi, Angelique,” Natalie said, clutching my shirt and turning her head to face the intruder.
Angelique. Finn’s mother. They had the same exotic eyes
“Sorry, Natalie.” The statuesque woman clutched a small silver purse to her clingy black dress. “I was looking for the ladies’ room.”
“It’s on the other side of the bar.”
Cheeks crimson, Angelique raised an eyebrow at me, smiled, then said to Natalie, “Oh, my sweet child. I’m so glad you moved on from that oversized doofus. You know, the one with the funny name.” Then, she shot me a wink, turned, and made her way back into the ballroom, her red heels perpetuating a killer hip swing that only a well-seasoned lady could pull off.
“I like Angelique.” I lifted Natalie’s arms back around my neck.
“She’s a character. And one of the smartest women I know.”
“Can we get back to kissing?” I pinned her against the wall once again.
“Nats! There you are.” Finn’s voice boomed our way.
Jesus. Fuck. Enough with the interruptions.
With a heavy sigh, Natalie pried her body from mine and fell into her cousin’s arms. Their embrace was short and sweet, but long enough for me to wipe the lipstick off my
