Jodi Ellen Malpas

“It is all very easy because I have you. Unravel your knickers, lady.”

“Does she know how crazy in love with her I am?”

“Do you believe in fate, Ava?”

“Don't you want to fall into bed and let me pay special attention to you all day?”

“You are a God.”

“Do I still qualify as your God?”

“Ava, wherever I'm going from now on, I'm taking you with me, baby.”

“Promise me you'll never leave me.”

“Do I turn you on, Ava?”

“I'll die loving you, Ava.”

“Enjoying the view?”

“No. Have a bath with me.”

“I am confident, because you said yes. Or was it....." He looks up to the ceiling in deep thought and then back at me. "Oh, I remember. It was...yes, yes, yes, fucking hell, yes!”

“You see, this is exactly why I want you here morning, noon and night.”

“I want to be your life.”

“You don't play fair, Mr Ward.”

“I want you here when I go to sleep." He licks my bottom lip. "And I want you here when I wake up. Starting and ending my day with you is all I need.”

“Mouth.”

“I'm a child because I like peanut butter?”

“No, you're a child because of the way you eat peanut butter. No one over the age of ten should finger dip jars and as I'm being kept in the dark over your age, I assume that you are over ten.”

“I like hoofing you about.”

“I love it. Reminds me of you." "It reminds me of a man I don't like." I never want to hear it again. "I'm sorry." He nips at my neck, drawing his tongue up the length to my jawbone. "My arse is dead.”

“Soon, I'm comfy.”

“Come back to me, Ava.”

“Because, Ava, it's in my past where I want it to stay. I don't want anything affecting my future.”

“As long as I have you, I have purpose and reason. That is why I won't be drinking and that is why I will do everything in my power to keep you safe. Understand?”

“Where you're concerned, I'll try my best, Ava. I already told you, I've waited too long for you. You're my little piece of heaven. Nothing will rob you from me. Nothing.”

“I couldn't find you. I thought you had left. I had a hundred heart attacks in ten minutes, Ava. Why were you in the other bedroom?”

“No, you're not." He sounds very confident. "Ava, you've found out the worst about me and not run a mile. Well, you did, but you came back." He kisses my forehead. "Do you honestly think I'm bothered about my age?”

“I already know everything I need to know about you. I know how I feel and nothing you could tell me will make me feel any different. I wish you felt the same.”

“How old are you, Jesse?”

“You were drunk. I wanted to hear the words when you were of sound mind. Women get drunk all the time and confess their undying love to me.”

“Together.”

“Now, we make love.”

“I love you so fucking much. I didn't think it was possible.”

“Just yours, Ava. Tell me you love me.”

“You're mine, and mine alone, baby. Just for my eyes, just for my touch and just for my pleasure. Just mine. Do you understand me?”

“Ava, I've never felt like this before.”

“I've been telling you how I feel the whole time.”

“Thank you for coming back to me.”

“We need to make friends.”

“You need reminding.”

“Baby, I do my talking this way.”

“I need you.”

“I need to do this.”

“You sleep here.”

“Well, he doesn't fall out of bed and wrap his lips around a bottle of vodka, does he?”

“Better?" he asks as he looks up at me. "I'm sorry. For everything, Ava.”

“For God's sake, woman, I'm not going to dive into the shelves and rip the caps off the bottles. Are you okay?”

“Could you have parked any further away?”