I shake my head. “No, well…yeah. But I was thinking about how good you were to me during that. You probably saved my life.”

“Don’t say that.” He pulls me to the bed and sits down so we’re both in the center of it. I want nothing more than to be close to him, so I crawl into his lap and wrap my arms around him, pressing my face into his neck.

“It was a huge deal, James. You being there with me, for me. For everything.” I pull away to look up at him. “Is there any surprise that I’m in love with you?”

He smiles and his eyes trace my face and I wonder if he’s trying to figure out what I’m feeling. “I would do anything for you.”

“I can’t be without you. Without this.” I tell him as I begin to fear that his earlier comment about whether or not this is realistic was him trying to end it. “I know it’s going to be tough, but I’m in. So totally and completely in.”

He rests his head against mine. “I can hear what you’re thinking. I know where your mind is going and I wasn’t suggesting ending this. I just don’t want you to get hurt.” He pulls me tighter against him and I wrap my legs around him as I snuggle further into his chest. “You know that I’ve always been protective of you and your feelings. I just know the second anyone says something to you about us I’m going to be out for their blood.”

“I can handle what anyone says. What I can’t handle is being without you.”

Chapter Fourteen

Fucking hell, this woman knows exactly what the fuck I like. I look down at the mass of hair hovering over my cock as she sucks me down her throat. Her small hand fists my dick as she moves up and down my shaft. After the heaviness of the conversation earlier, I held her in my arms as I rubbed her back until I thought she had fallen asleep. As much as I wanted to be inside of her, I didn’t want to push anything while she was in this headspace. Unfortunately, I remember all too well how hard it was for her. I remember barely sleeping for a week straight because my mother was beside herself with worry over how much she had spiraled. I was pretty much the only person she confided in so I knew things weren’t as dire as she probably thought, but it terrified me that she was in such a dark place. I even considered taking a leave of absence from work to be here but Gabrielle didn’t want me to do that. She knew how hard I’d worked to get to where I was and she didn’t want me to give that up