Page 49 of The Best Worst Mistake (Off-Limits #2)

Dax

I turn back to swipe the bowl of strawberries off the counter, then start to follow my girlfriend down the hall.

My girlfriend .

It seems too good to be true.

She stops halfway down the hallway and turns around, pushing a hand against my chest so she can get back around me toward the kitchen.

My heart sinks. She’s spooked. That was even shorter-lived than I thought. Maybe it was too soon to tell her how I’ve felt ever since we took that ride on the Ferris wheel.

“What is it?” I ask, bracing myself for that awful flight response of hers to take over.

“I forgot I got something to go with the strawberries,” she says, rushing toward the fridge.

I wait in the hall, hoping she reappears with a bottle of chilled champagne under her arm or something, but instead, she’s holding a can of whipped cream.

“It’s a celebration, isn’t it?” she asks, grinning wildly.

I laugh, beyond grateful she’s not in flight to the airport.

She holds the spray can high over her shoulder as she closes the distance.

“Open,” she says, tapping my chin with her finger.

I open my mouth and tilt my head back.

She sprays a mountain of whipped cream into my mouth, then kisses me once she can’t fit in any more.

We laugh, pulling away from each other, a bit of white cream on her bottom lip. I nip it off, tugging her back in for another one of those sweet kisses.

“I’ve never tried this,” she says, grinning. “I’ve only seen it in the movies. Maybe we’ll have to take this into the shower to keep the mess at a minimum, or something.”

“What types of movies are you watching?” I ask, laughing. She pushes the can against my chest, rolling her eyes. “You’re trying a lot of things you haven’t ever done before this trip,” I add.

She takes a deep breath, then looks into my eyes, suddenly more serious than she was just a moment ago. “There’s one more I want to try.” She lifts her face up to mine.

“Anything,” I tell her.

She blushes that deep shade of pink I love. Then rises onto her tiptoes. But instead of speaking, she rakes her fingers through my hair then drags her palm down my cheek, studying my eyes intently.

“What is it, Abs?” I ask more gently, praying that whatever she’s about to say is nothing that’s going to tear her away from me.

The amber pools of her eyes deepen beneath her lashes.

“I want to tell you that I think I love you, too,” she whispers, so quietly that I’m not sure I’ve even heard her right.

“You think?” I ask, pushing her hair back from her eyes.

Her eyes crinkle at the sides, and she nods.

“No, I don’t think, I know. I know that I love you,” she whispers louder, then her eyes gaze into mine and she repeats it, more firmly this time.

“I love you. And if I’m being really honest with myself, there’s always been a part of me that has always known.

I’ve never been able to forget about you.

Or how safe you make me feel. All the way back to law school, as long as I can remember knowing you.

No matter how many times I tried to fight it, or deny it, or just be stupid about it, the feeling of wanting you in my life has never left me.

At least, not here.” She taps her temple, grinning.

“Or here,” she adds, placing her hand over her heart.

“There’s a solid chance that I never admitted it to myself because I was afraid that once I did, it wouldn’t work out. ”

She watches my eyes, looking so nervous that it nearly breaks me. But it’s all there, filling her face so clearly that there’s nothing left in me to question what she’s saying.

“I don’t plan to go anywhere,” I tell her, pulling her hand away from her heart, and placing it over mine. “Can you feel that?”

“Of course. Your heart’s pounding like a damn racehorse.” She laughs, blinking up at me.

“No one else has ever made me feel the way you do,” I tell her. “I’ve wanted you since the first time I laid eyes on you. Some people just feel different , the moment you meet them. That was you for me. Different, somehow. I think you’re my bookend, babe.”

She presses her forehead into my chest to laugh, but when her eyes land on mine, all the nerves and uncertainty have drained out of them. Instead, she just looks happy.

“There’s another thing I’ve been dying to do,” she says, lowering her voice, glancing down the hallway.

I don’t wait to hear what it is. Instead, I pick her up and put her over my shoulder while she squeals.

“Tell me on the way,” I growl, feeling like I might burst open if I have to wait one more minute to show this girl how much I love her. “Which door is yours?”

“Seventh one down on the left!” she shrieks.

“Seventh?” I repeat, groaning. “You didn’t tell me you had to hike to your bedroom every night.”

She giggles. “It’ll be worth it, I swear.”

The hallway may as well be a mile, but I race down it. I don’t want to waste another second.

I don’t even have to count the open doors to know which one is hers.

It’s like a miniature version of her apartment back home.

There’re potted plants everywhere. Tiny yellow sunflowers burst open near one of the windows, succulents and tiny strawberry plants are scattered across a ledge, and a tree that’s taller than me sits in a big, black pot in the corner.

I slowly bring her feet back down to the floor, looking around.

She spins around, smiling.

“I was planning to take them all back with me,” she says, sheepishly.

“I hadn’t figured that part out yet, or I was just going to leave them here as a thank you to Selma and Quinton for letting me stay the last couple months.

I know Charlie would find a place here for all of them.

I just wanted a chance to learn how to take care of everything in person while I had him here to show me.

He’s been amazing, teaching me everything he knows. ”

I walk around, fingering the waxy leaves from another tall tree. Everything in the room looks like it’s thriving, including Abby.

“You did all this?”

“No urban gardener. Just me and Charlie, but he made me do most of it. I mean,” — she laughs — “I wanted to do most of it.”

I watch her walk around, touching each plant as if it’s a living breathing part of her.

The same girl I saw back in New York, surrounded by her own tiny jungle, but somehow, everything about her is different.

She matches her surroundings now. Vibrant.

Alive. Growing and expanding in every which way.

I take her face in my palms and kiss her gently.

“You’re beautiful, you know that?” I tell her, hoping she can finally see how amazing she is. She leans back to look into my eyes. “Now more than ever.”

She kisses me again, then pulls me down on the bed with her, leaning back into the mattress.

“For the love of God, make love to me, Dax,” she says. Then her hands curl up around my shoulders, and she brings her face up to meet mine, raking her nails through my hair as I position myself above her. I feel her hips press off the bed beneath me.

There’s a whole future between us rolling deep in her eyes — where one had never been able to exist before.

She pulls her shirt up over her head, then pulls mine off next, tossing them both off the bed. I pull a condom from my pants pocket before those go off next.

“Do you want me to grab the can?” I ask, pointing to the whipped cream I left near the door.

“I thought I might,” she says, kissing my neck. Then she whispers into my ear, unraveling something held tight within me, “But, I think I just want you, and only you, right now. Is that okay?”

I grin.

“I never thought I’d turn down covering you in whipped cream, but yeah,” I whisper, smiling down at her. “I think just the two of us sounds pretty perfect right now, actually.”

I pull both our pants off next, then whatever’s left beneath. Then shift the bed sheet up across my back, hoping it’s enough to keep her warm.

She bends her knees around my hips, a slow invitation for me to push in, drinking my eyes in with hers as she does.

I kiss her gently, our lips lingering and soft, every move between us slowing everything down, making the feeling swirling between us more clear, as if everything is unfolding exactly as it should.

Nothing feels rushed.

I want to take my time loving her.

Because this time, she’s not going anywhere.

I kiss her neck, then her lips, dragging my mouth across the smooth, softness of her skin, wanting to remember forever the way her hips rise to meet mine, the tiny gasps escaping her lips when I nip that sensitive spot beneath her ear, the scent of vanilla and cream on her tongue, and the hungry look in her eyes, saying more than any carefully chosen words ever could.

Our breath mingles, and she grabs on to one of my hands, pushing our palms together when I thrust inside her, gasping gently when our bodies melt into one.

She moans into my lips, then finds my eyes, intertwining my fingers in hers.

We move together, rocking gently beneath the sheet as she wraps her legs around my hips, her breath hot and wanting in my mouth, tiny moans escaping her.

“Dax,” she whispers into my ear. “I want you.”

She kisses my neck, but I don’t take my eyes off her.

I tuck the dark hair back from her face, moving slowly inside her, pressing my forehead into hers, desperate for this moment to last until the end of time.

“And I love you,” she repeats her words from earlier.

“I will never not love you,” I answer, kissing her cheeks, each one at a time, before pressing my lips into hers, feeling her breath quickening with mine.

I try to make the moment last as long as I can, memorizing everything about her looking up at me the way she is, no fear left in those big amber pools as they begin to summit the mountain we’ve begun climbing together.

And I cover her mouth with mine, rendering her speechless, knowing, with everything in me, that I will never love anyone more.