Two Bar Mitzvahs (No Weddings #3)(37)

Hannah took a deep breath. “A week from Saturday. Then we’re free of Selfish Bitch.”

I clinked bottle necks with her. “Here’s to a week from Saturday, when we have weeks and weeks with no plans.”

She leaned her head onto my shoulder. “Eleven more days until freedom.”

I nodded while I clicked out of the document I’d saved. “What will we do with all the time?”

She let out a soft laugh. “Sleep in bed for days.”

Growling low, I lowered my mouth to her ear. “Only sleep in bed?”

“Mmm…” She turned her head, touching my lips with a soft kiss. “Passed out for days, after wild monkey sex for days.”

“Wild monkey sex?” I snorted.

“You know.” She leaned forward, got onto all fours, and slid her arms forward across the rug as she lowered her upper body. Then she folded them before resting her chin on her forearm to glance back at me. She wiggled her ass, and those little white shorts of hers slid higher. “Where I bare my engorged sexy-time goods, and you pound on your chest, howling.”

I laughed and got onto my knees behind her. “First of all” -—I ground against her, my jeans to her raised ass— “the only pounding that will happen is me into you.” I gripped her hips, pumping against her twice in demonstration. “Second of all, I do not, and will never, howl.”

She grinned, looking back as she rotated her hips, teasing me. “Grunt?”

I shook my head. “Growl. Roar. Snarl maybe, if I don’t get what I want when I demand it.”

Pulling away, she held my gaze. When she twisted fully around to face me, she crossed her legs. “Serious for a minute?”

“Anytime you want.” I relaxed back into my sprawled position at the foot of the couch.

“Think you’ll ever get bored with me?”

I held my sigh in check, wanting to do all those things I’d mentioned: snarl, growl, and roar. Not to mention crush one Madison Kensington for casting even a hint of doubt into Hannah’s mind.

“I don’t think anything. I know I won’t get bored with you. Not in a few weeks, not in any amount of months, and not in the years I’ll be lucky enough to spend with you.”

Her expression softened, but then tightened again.

I leaned forward. “Look, Madison has no idea what love is. Don’t accept what she thinks she knows. It’s from her misguided perception.”

Hannah’s jaw tensed. “But you thought you loved her.”

The physical distance stretching between us was brutal, even though it was only a few feet. Hannah had her legs crossed in front of her as a barrier, but we needed contact more. I pushed off from the bottom of the couch and crowded in close. She stared at my chest as I pushed her legs up and bracketed mine around hers.

With a gentle finger, I tipped her chin up, forcing her gaze to meet mine. “I loved a mirage of a girl back when I’d been young and foolish. Until that point, she was the best thing that had ever happened to me. But I didn’t see that she only supported me when it suited her motives. The moment hers weren’t aligned with mine, she no longer cared about me. No matter what I thought I felt for her at the time, that’s not love. My time with her had been a joke. Her callous actions made me see her true self.”

She gave a heavy blink. “How do you know I’m different? That you love me?”

Good question. Even better, how could I trust in what Hannah and I had? I’d been a great judge of people until Madison had pulled her con job on me. Back then, I thought she’d changed with me after she’d burned through all those guys. I thought she’d been capable of love.

But Madison and Hannah were night and day. Madison was hard-edged and manipulative. Hannah, easygoing and genuine. Where Madison found fault in others and turned a blind eye, Hannah saw the good in people, offering to help any way she could. And Hannah didn’t have to try at all. It came naturally to her. There was no comparison.

And in hindsight, my proposal to Madison had been driven by logic. Feelings I’d had for her had been rooted from our childhood friendship. Beyond that, maybe they’d only been superficial. My grasp of life back then had been an initial version: Cade 1.0.

What I felt now was worlds-apart different. With Hannah, my heart both ached and soared. In every incredible way that made me never want it to end.

I inhaled deeply, smiling. “There aren’t enough words to describe what you do to me, for me. Every day, I wake thinking about how I can make you smile, cause your laugh. I know I love you because of the things I want to learn about you, endless ways I want to touch your body, your heart. There are so many adventures I want to take you on, experiences I want to have with you—just to live in that moment with you.”

Her mouth fell open slightly, but no words came out. I began to worry I’d overwhelmed her, when all I’d wanted to do was reassure her. Prove to her with words how I felt.

“You okay, Maestro? I think I stunned you speechless.”

She nodded, throat working as she swallowed. Her voice rasped out. “I’ve never…that was the most beautiful thing anyone has ever said to me.”

Lifting my hand, I watched her carefully as she closed her eyes in anticipation of the contact. My fingers brushed her cheek as she leaned in toward my touch. “I mean every word.”