“Baby, you stare at my dick any longer, Miss Mildred’s gonna have to send out a search party.”… “I was staring at your hip muscles,” I corrected.“Whatever,” he muttered, his lips now smiling too, then louder, “just sayin’, anything in that vicinity, your eyes on it, it’ll get thoughts on its own.”“So noted,” I mumbled.”

“You gonna order me to kiss you so I can get all tingly or are you just gonna stare at me?"He knew his smile hit his eyes when he muttered, "Kiss me, honey.”

“You’re unbelievable,” I snapped.“I’m yours.”That socked me in the gut too, so hard it winded me and all I could do was stare up at him. Taking advantage, his face dipped close and his hands curled around both sides of my head.“First fuckin’ time you smiled at me in my bed, that’s when it happened,” he murmured. “You’re under my skin. I’m under yours.”I shook my head and his face got even closer, all I could see were his sky blue eyes, all I could feel were his lips a breath away from mine.“I like you there, buddy, and you like me there too.”

“You get that he took something precious from you, your ability to trust.... He took that from you, now's your time to fight and get it back...Just live in the now, Kia, keep livin' in the now and when I say that, right now..""That doesn't make me any less scared, Sam," I whispered in his ear and he lifted his head and looked down at me.""He strapped you with that too, baby. Fight back and learn to be fearless.”

“I could not dream a better you.” Oh my God. Oh… my… God. Did he just say that? I stared into his warm eyes. He just said that. And that was so sweet, so unexpected but so welcome, my breath arrested and all I could do was continue staring at him. He wasn’t done. “A better wife, a better queen. Not even in a dream could I create better than you.”

“Kiss me, Tate,” I demanded softly. “Baby -“I lifted my head and put my lips to his, encouraging on a whisper, “I wanna catch fire, honey, and only you can bring that out for me.”I watched up close as Tate’s eyes went intense then his head slanted and he muttered, “You got it, Ace.”Then he kissed me.”

“Jules, I’ll tell you now what I would have told you at dinner if you’d been speakin’ to me. This,” he said, one hand dropping to my bottom and pulling my hips into his, one going up my back to press my torso to his chest, “is the sweetest thing I’ve had in my life and I haven’t even f**ked you yet. I never expected to get a chance at anything so sweet and now that I got it, I’m not gonna let it go.”