"I'm never walking away again."
How perfect he looks in my loft. Almost like the designer picked him out too. He's wearing jeans that are fashionably ripped and frayed at the seams. A Band of Outsiders jersey hoodie that skims across his muscles. A casual blazer.
The way he makes my loft feel more like a home.
A black suit and black shirt. Looking a little dangerous.
A naughty gleam in his eyes.
A kiss that I can feel all the way to the tips of my Louboutin-encased toes. A kiss that has way more tongue than is appropriate for a crowded elevator.
"That's because you look beautiful."
How small my hand feels in his. And the possessiveness and control I feel in his firm grip.
Taking me to the top of the Empire State Building and making me feel like I belong on a movie set.
"My hands are going to be all over you in the club. Feeling every bit of you."
Delicious lips finding my neck in the middle of a crowded dance floor.
Swaying to the music while he bites my neck. Teeny little adorably hot bites. Ones that inject love potion or some sort of ecstasy type drug into my skin.
"Bath or hot tub?"
Not only fitting together when we're dancing, but my back nestling perfectly into his chest. I am seriously never taking a bath again by myself.
Ice between his lips, gliding purposefully down my neck. Then slowly- excruciatingly slowly-down into my cleavage. Then across my stomach. I've died and gone to hottie heaven.
A look that speaks directly to my soul.
"This is the good part, Boots."
Watching him take a shower.
Thinking I look beautiful when I have mascara under my eyes and look like the zombie apocalypse.
Realizing I was wrong when I said it looked like my loft was designed for him because my bed was designed for him.
A pillow fight.
"You look good pinned underneath me."
Snuggling my face into his chest, breathing in the heavenly scent that is him, and closing my eyes.
Waking up to find him making snacks in my kitchen.
A big Barneys box with a purple handbag for no reason other than I loved it.
"When my mom was going through chemo, she was tired a lot, so we watched movies together. And popcorn was one food that usually didn't make her feel sick."
Knowing for certain that his tongue is laced with love potion.
"Because us, this, is not about fun. It's serious."
Rubbing a feather lightly all over his chest. His neck. His perfectly shaped arms. Across his abs. In a little tickle motion up his sides. Across his neck. His face. Even though I'm. Dying.
"You told me that you wanted to work on our foundation, our framework."
Pulling me against a raging Titan and asking: "Does this feel like I want to reject you?"
"When you decide that you want me and only me, that's when I'll let you keep your clothes off. Until then, we're going slow. I have never turned down a girl before."
"Boots, I promise you. I want you. It took every single ounce of my conviction to do that. To walk out of the room. The foundation was your idea."
Pushing me onto the kitchen counter, ripping open the front of my robe, shoving it off my shoulders, and staring at my naked chest.
A single finger tracing the curve of my breast. Circling my nipple. Grazing across the top of it.
The hunger in his eyes.
"Does that feel like middle school?"
Studying French body part words.
"Mmmm, you like my tongue?"
Sitting on his lap. Okay, straddling his lap.
His sexy growls.
"You're gonna have to stop doing that or I'm gonna-"
Replacing my hand with his. "I'll do that."
"Do you think it's been easy for me? I'm doing it for you. Because you need to go slow."
"Because the last two guys you've been with, that you loved, hurt you. I want to be the guy that doesn't hurt you."
Face bruised, posture off, no sparkle in his green eyes, no smile. But still. . . . My god of all hotties.
Making a four-leaf clover before kicking a field goal.
A moon.
"While others may wish on a shooting star, it's the moon the holds my dreams afar."
A hard, possessive kiss on a plane.
A cotton-candy-has-filled-my-brain kiss.
The way he smells.
"I'm going to keep kissing you until you stop talking."
His soul telling me the same thing it always does. That we should be together forever.
"Boots, I give up."
"You were right. It wasn't all about you. I jumped into relationships last year. I did things with girls I didn't have feelings for. I wanted to do things differently with you. And I know you loved the Keats guy. It was unfair of me to judge your relationship when I know nothing about it."
"Boots, I don't care about my past, or yours. I only care about your future. Our future."
A mason jar full of dirt to build our mansion of love on.
"It's symbolic dirt. It also means a fresh start. I don't care if everything we've told each other up until this point is a lie. We start over. Here. Today. This second. Both of us. On fresh dirt."
"What, baby?"
This text: I'm not giving up on us. I can't give up on us.
Giving me his penny, so I could have his wish.
"I'm far from perfect, Boots, but I know that I'm perfect for you."
"'A thing of beauty is a joy forever: its loveliness increases; it will never pass into nothingness.'"
"You make every moment beautiful."
"Before Keatyn. Because since you came into my life, no one else fits."
Imaging him forty years from now, dressed in jeans and dusty cowboy boots, his dark blond hair starting to gray at the temples, those bright green eyes still speaking to my soul as he wanders onto our front porch, our grandchildren in tow, their hands and mouths full of dark red grapes they just picked from the vineyard.
The kind of kiss that infuses me with so much more than love potion. It infuses me with hope.
"You're stronger than you know, Boots, and if you ever have to fight something, I'm confident you'll be able to handle it."
"Life with you is never going to be boring."
"I've been dreaming of slowly undressing you."
"The sound of the ocean, watching the sun set, a good glass of wine, and your lips on mine."
Thinking I hear him whisper, I love you.
"I love you naked in my shirt."
"A beautiful wreck then. Wearing my shirt. I'd like to wake up like this every morning of my life." He gives me a naughty grin. "So back to last night."
"I want you to jump with me. Off the love cliff."
"Do you trust me?"
"He better not be trying to steal my girl." (About a dolphin who is showing off.) Writing love in the sand.
Doing everything on my vacation bucket list.
Being a tease.
"You better always come back for me."
Watching him in the shower. And then joining him.
The Titan covered in white washcloth.
Seeing the green flash together.
"Everyone falls in love at different times in their lives. And when you're in it, you think you know what it's like to be in love. Until you meet your true love and feel the real thing."
Not running away after B called. Talking to me.
"I can see the sparkle in your eyes. How excited you were. It's like you believed your life could be a fairy tale."
"I sat out on the balcony, drank the champagne alone-straight out of the bottle-and, as the sun was almost ready to come up, I made a wish on the moon."
"I wished for my perfect girl."
"What you feel is my heart beating for you. Always. Only. Ever. For you."
"Did you know that each leaf on a four-leaf clover has a special meaning? The first petal is for faith. You need to have faith in us. The second is for hope. The hope that we can get through whatever life throws at us. The third is for love. And the fourth is for luck. We already know that we're lucky together."
"Look, this isn't at all how I wanted to do this. But I love you. A deep-within-my-soul, heartbreakingly beautiful kind of love."
"It's okay, baby. It's been a rough night. Let's go to bed."
"I'm up for the competition. By then, we'll have built such a strong foundation that no one could tear it down."
"Wherever you go, I go."
"You have my heart and I kinda need it to survive."
"When I said we're going to be together forever, I meant it."
"Forever isn't going to be nearly long enough for us."
"I've never asked you to promise me forever, Boots," he says, the hint of a smirk playing on his lips. "Just promise me tomorrow."
"I was serious, Keatyn. Wherever you go, I go. Whatever family stuff you need to deal with, I'll help you. You don't have to face it alone."