She smiled then. A soft kind of opening that had him by the fucking heart.

“You look awfully cute when you wake up,” she said quietly. “I always wondered.”

Self-consciously, he combed a hand through his hair. He wanted to go to her. He wanted to wrap her into his arms and never let go. She belonged to him now. And he was fucking terrified that she didn’t understand that yet.

Instead, he walked into the kitchen and helped himself to a sturdy mug of coffee. To feel closer to her, he opened the fridge and added her creamer.

“I thought you liked it black?” she said when he took the chair next to her.

“I thought you slept at four a.m.”

She took a sip of her coffee and used a bare foot to toe the chair around to face him. “I can’t sleep.”

He had about a thousand questions on the tip of his tongue. But none of them came out. Did she have regrets? It would annihilate him if she regretted what they’d done. What’d he’d done.

She was wearing the same oversized Mackinac PD sweatshirt he’d seen on her just a few weeks ago.

“I’ve been looking for that shirt,” he said mildly.

Her smile was coy, and it went straight to his gut.

“I borrowed it a few years ago.”

“Remi, are you okay?” he asked finally. “With what we did?”

Her face softened again, and she reached out with one pale hand. She gripped his arm with a strength that surprised him.

“I don’t have any regrets besides the fact that we didn’t start doing that years ago.”

Those green eyes were so earnest he could have fallen in and drowned.

“Are you sure?” His voice sounded shaky to his own ears. He hated the gnawing need he had for her. Hated the knowledge that it wasn’t enough just to share his body with her. He’d served up his fucking heart to her.

Remi rose and put her mug down on the small table between the chairs. With one step, she was standing in front of him and then climbing into his lap.

He nearly hurled his coffee to the floor to get his hands on her as she straddled him.

When her arms came around his neck, when her body settled against his chest, he let out a breath and wrapped her into his arms. Content to sit here in this chair with her and rock for the rest of his life.

“I have to tell you something,” she whispered against his neck.

He squeezed her tighter. Something was about to change.

When she said whatever she had to say, they wouldn’t be able to go back to before. To now. He wasn’t prepared for that. Hell, he wasn’t prepared for what had happened between them mere hours ago. Their lives had changed. At least his had. His course altered. And there was no going back.

“Go ahead, baby,” he said, sinking his fingers into her hair and holding her face against him.