“And if I didn’t?”

He shook his head. “I know this trap. It won’t work. I’m well aware that gender has nothing to do with it. It’s just like you said—competence is sexy. But if you didn’t know how to use the drill?” He waggled his eyebrows. “Then I’d get to show you.”

“If you make a drill sex pun, I’m breaking up with you. I have to hold my boyfriend to some standards.”

We both froze at the same time. Despite my realization that my feelings for Declan ran pretty deep, I hadn’t brought it up with him. I’d chickened out. He hadn’t brought it up, either. And here I was accidentally initiating the conversation in an awkward manner. Huzzah, I guess.

He still hadn’t said anything. Maybe I should give us an out? “I was kidding?”

“About breaking up with me over a bad joke?” His voice had gone all gravelly again and I shivered. He put the glass cleaner and rag down. “Didn’t think you were serious.” He put his hands on my hips, and I could feel the heat through my shirt. “That’s the first time you’ve called me that.”

I swallowed. Well, might as well barrel forward. We couldn’t avoid this conversation forever. “Is that okay? I know we haven’t talked about it, but—”

He buried his face in my neck, breathing deep. “More than okay.” Declan kissed my neck, setting off a tiny detonation of heat along my skin, and I straightened. He grabbed my chin gently, his gaze hot and heavy. “If it wasn’t clear, Lou, this isn’t—you’re not just a fuck for me, okay?”

“I didn’t think that,” I said softly. I couldn’t look away from him. No one had a right to be this hot. It was unfair.

“Good.” He dropped his hands back down to my hips, gripping them hard, but not painfully. “This—you—are a big…you’re…” he said, stumbling over the words. He huffed, his eyebrows slamming down. “Important. I—” He growled in frustration.

The next thing I knew, he’d thrown the link wide open and crushed his mouth to mine. He poured a lot into the kiss, and into our bond, showing me what had been hard for him to say. I’d stacked my doubts about how Declan felt, what he wanted, into a tidy pile in the corner of my mind and I’d been ignoring them. He burned that pile to ash in a second, incinerating it with a kiss.

Not only a kiss, but a wave of emotion so strong it made my knees buckle.

Good thing I had him to hold on to.

I wrapped my arms around his neck, pulling him so close that only our clothing separated us. Then I gave back as good as I got, pouring everything I had into the kiss, into our bond, repaying his honesty with my own.

He whimpered, the sound cutting straight to my heart.

I bit at his lower lip and he growled, scooping me up and setting me on the countertop. With a soft sigh, I pulled him close again, wrapping my legs around him. The counter was not quite the right height, so we weren’t lined up and I let out a groan of frustration.