Page 99 of The Unlikely Heir

He’s watching me with those peridot eyes, and there’s desire there but also such utter, utter trust.

And so my next words slip out of me, unprompted, unscripted, and potentially devastating to both of us.

But I say them regardless.

“I love you.”

I’m certain no truer words have been said in the history of humanity.

ChapterTwenty-Four

Callum

Nothing could have prepared me for this.

To be the complete focus of Oliver’s attention. For him to touch me like I’m something absolutely precious, something he cannot go a moment longer without.

He places featherlight kisses along my collarbone, and I arch into his touch.

His hands slide under my kilt, and my body tingles with anticipation as he strokes my thighs, then lightly skims his fingers across my cock, causing me to hiss.

“Kilts are such amazing inventions,” I blurt, and Oliver pulls back, laughing. For a moment, I’m worried he’s come to his senses, that he’s going to end this.

But then he looks down at me, and all my fears wash away.

This is Oliver. I trust him more than I trust anyone on the planet.

And the expression he’s staring down at me with…I’m fairly sure no one has ever looked at me like this.

“I love you,” he says.

My heart swells. Oliver has given me a name for this emotion inside me, the fluttery feeling I get whenever I’m near him, the craving I have to know everything about him, this absolute obsession with anything Oliver.

It’s love.

I’m incapable of speaking. Because the most amazing, crazy, ridiculous thing about this whole scenario?

Oliver loves me back.

Somehow, I’ve won the love of this incredible, amazing man. The person I admire most on the planet.

“Ditto,” I finally manage to get out, in probably the worst declaration of love possible.

Luckily, Oliver just grins at me. It’s his noncategorizable grin, the slightly crooked one that I suspect only I ever get to see.

I rise to capture that smile with my lips.

And I still feel his smile as we sink into the kiss. Oliver’s tongue finds mine, and the slide together is one of the most delicious things I’ve ever experienced.

I have no idea what to do with a guy, but it doesn’t seem to matter.

And the knowledge that this is Oliver, my Oliver, is so powerful that all my senses seem to be amplified.

His weight on me is perfect, and he has a knee between my legs, so I adjust my body, letting him settle between them, pressing closer to me.

He slowly unbuttons my shirt, kissing every bit of newly exposed skin on my chest like it’s something precious.

He reaches the bottom button, and then I sit up so he can tug off my shirt completely. Oliver’s eyes roam over my bare chest, and I’m breathless at the sight of him, his lips swollen from kissing me, his dark pupils dilated.