Without a Hitch(113)

“Already catching him in the elevator,” she calls, her voice fading, proving she is trying to reach him before he makes it to my door.

“Is he used to her yet?” Delaney asks with a knowing grin. Her bright pink sweatshirt matches her lip gloss.

“Can you ever get used to Mable?”

She lifts her head from her laptop. “Good question. I’m on year number three of trying. I’ll let you know if it happens.”

A sharp knock on the door lets me know he’s here, and the following three knocks tell me Mable caught him.

Eli emerges from the kitchen and reaches the door first. She swings it open with a flourish.

“Stiffy,” she teases.

Lochlan leans in for a hug, muttering under his breath. “You know what a stiffy is, yes?”

Eli’s grin grows dangerous, but it’s Mable that speaks, pushing past them both. “Oh, we know what a stiffy is. We hear you putting it to good use every time you visit.” She pats his chest with a mixture of a laugh and a cough.

His face goes red as he stalks forward out of their reach. “I missed you,” he groans, dragging me in for a blistering kiss.

I wrap my arms around his neck as my body melts into his. When he releases my lips, I gasp for breath. “I missed you too.”

His gaze darts toward the hallway leading to my bedroom, and the heat in his eyes is unmistakable. This is the longest we have been apart since our time in California, and my body longs for his touch.

“Alrighty then,” Delaney says. “Before our apartment goes up in flames, we’re going to head out for lunch and give y’all a couple hours on your own.” She winks, and it always makes me laugh.

She’s the one person I know who can’t wink. No matter how hard she tries, it always looks like someone spit in her eyeball.

“Two hours?” Lochlan murmurs in my ear. “That’s not nearly enough. I need you every day. All day. This commuting bullshit is killing me.”

We returned from California as a couple, but a new couple who had a lot to work out.

“I was in New York two weeks ago,” I remind him as Eli drags Mable from the room with a wave and a thumbs-up. She also makes a crude thrusting motion with her hips, but I ignore her.

“That was fifteen days ago! Three hundred and sixty hours, Till.”

“And we’ve FaceTimed multiple times a day, every day.”

His hand glides up my back in a sensual caress. “But I couldn’t touch you, darling.” He pulls me into him with a sharp tug at my back. “And I need to touch you.” Without warning, he scoops me up and charges into my bedroom like a raging bull.

We’re both laughing and carefree as he topples us onto the bed. Hovering above me, he’s careful not to drop his entire body weight on me. We stare for a long minute, gazes darting eye to eye as we just feel the intimacy of the moment.

“I love you.”

His eyes shine with happiness. “I love you too. So much it’s driving me bloody insane when you’re not with me.”

In the past few weeks, he's hinted about me moving to New York permanently. It would make sense since over fifty percent of our events are held there, but I’ve wanted to give him time to be sure.

I never want to force anything on him.

He grins against my neck as he dips down to taste me. “Are you still pissed that Colton fired you?”

Honestly, I was relieved. I was angry, yes, but also relieved that I didn’t have to make that decision. I was terrified of having to choose, even though Lochlan had essentially handed me my dream job.

“Yes and no.” I pout. “Colton did it because he knew I felt guilty about leaving him high and dry.”

“He did it because he wants you to be happy, Till. Are you happy?” His face grows serious.

“I’m happy now that you’re here.”

Lochlan leans back and grasps my hands. Raising them above my head, he pins me down, and my tummy does that delicious whirly thing only he can cause. He’s slowly relaxed with me in his life, but he’ll always be dominant in the bedroom. His thumb and forefinger spin the ring I still wear on my left hand. “In all your Pinterest boards for your dream wedding, you never picked out a ring. Why?”

His question catches me off guard, and I shrug. I’d forgotten that he’d gone through my phone so many months ago now. “I guess I wanted that part to be a surprise. I don’t wear much jewelry, so I wanted my fiancé to choose something he thought suited me. Something he saw and just knew it was meant for me. It’s silly, I guess.”

“No, it’s not. But you do know what you want, don’t you?”

My face flames and contorts into a grimace. I try to break eye contact, but I should know better.

He hooks my chin with a single finger and drags it back to him. “Show me,” he demands.

“Lover…”

“Show. Me.”

Wiggling my body, I slip out from under him and trudge to my closet, where I retrieve an eighteen-year-old three-ring binder. Heat creeps down my neck, followed by a light sheen of perspiration.

Turning toward Lochlan, I hang my head and hand it to him.

Mortification cannot begin to describe my state of mind as he opens the cover with a loving smile that grows with each turn of the page. Before him is the progression of my dream wedding, starting when I was ten years old. As he gets closer to the end, he pauses, and I know he’s found the ring I sketched a little over five years ago.