“I guess, I know you’ve lived this whole life ahead of me and experienced a ton of things. Just being Taylor couldn’t be enough to keep you to myself—like I want.” Holy crap, I just dumped the truth out between us. And it felt like watching a full glass water pitcher hit a tile floor. No fixing it, only dealing with it.

“Oh, baby.” He pulled me against his chest for a hug.

“It’s true, though, right?” I pulled the lace over my breasts.

“No. Not true at all.” He rolled off the bed and held out his hand to me. His flaccid dick was still impressive.

I took his hand and let him help me out of the bed. It felt freeing to walk with a naked him anywhere. He took me to the full-length mirror in the bedroom.

We stood side-by-side and he waited patiently until I made eye contact with him in the mirror. We’d just had sex, but I felt the zap between my legs all over again, just from his gaze.

One hand covered the lace on left breast. He touched my bare hip with the other hand.

“See this curve right here?” He let his fingertips paint the touch sensation on my skin. “It’s worth a lifetime.” Then he took my hands and stepped behind me. He wasn’t a head taller than me, so he leaned a bit so he could see around my messy bed hair. “These dimples right here?” He put his thumbs over the two indentations in my lower back. “A war to get to put my hands here and know I can enter you.”

He pulled my hair away from my neck and tilted my body into his. “This throat? The beautiful things you say to me? Create a universe I want to fall into.” He twisted me so I was chest-to-chest with him. “This gorgeous face? This profile?” He used his index finger to trace from my forehead to my nose to my lips. I kissed his finger. “You are the very epitome of a gift to this world. You are a luxury and a pilgrimage. Remember these words. Take them into your soul, my incredible, beautiful Taylor. Please promise me you’ll do that. You’ll hear me say that when the voice in your mind isn’t playing nice?”

I knew then that my heart was right. And if my heart could write a man into existence, I wasn’t sure she could come up with someone this good. My soul recognized in him this beauty before I knew what it meant.

“How can you just say these things? And all of a sudden I believe them?” I put his face in my hands, running my thumbs along his high cheekbones.

His eyes sparkled. “Because I’m right, it’s true and I’ve never lied to you.”