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I don’t want him to stop. I want him to kiss me, hold me, love me. It was supposed to end after a week, but we’re going to be roommates for the rest of our lives.

THIRTY-FIVE

Ben

As soon as the lift doors close, I pin her against the wall. I can’t believe how lucky I am. I get to be in love with Avril and get to spend the rest of my life with her. It seems too good to be true. I never thought I could be as happy as I am now. When I started out, I just wanted to make sure I had a roof over my head and food in my stomach. And now I have everything I could ever want.

I have this woman in front of me who’s changed the way I see everything. Changed what I thought was possible. Changed me from the inside out.

“Hey,” I say, as my gaze flicks between her eyes, her lips. I dig my hand into the back of her hair.

“You’ve never kissed me in here,” she says.

I press my mouth against hers, pressing my tongue through her lips. I groan at her warmth. Can this woman actually be mine? How is that possible? How can she believe in me so fiercely that she’s willing to take a chance on me?

She reaches up, to smooth her hand on my chest, and I pull back.

“Are you okay?”

“I’m always okay when I’m with you,” she says.

If I wasn’t hard before, I would be now. Hearing her say stuff like that undoes me. It’s so open and so trusting. She believes in me so wholeheartedly that I know I’ll spend the rest of my life making sure I never let her down.

“Why are you kissing me now, and you didn’t before?” Her arms slide around my waist and my heart rate picks up speed.

I glance up to the cameras. “Because everyone’s always watching.”

“I thought this was a private elevator?”

“It is. But there are cameras. I didn’t want private pictures of me circulating. I didn’t want anything out there that could shift people’s perceptions of me into a player rather than a trusted advisor.”

She tilts her head to one side. “And now you’ve changed your mind?”

“You’re my fiancée,” I reply, cupping her face. “I’m kissing my soon-to-be wife.” I pull in a breath. “But honestly, not kissing you in here has always been a challenge. I’ve always wanted more of you. That’s why I agreed to the whole roommate-for-a-week thing.”

“You agreed to me moving in to prove that we couldn’t keep it professional.”

I chuckle. “No, I agreed because I wanted to know you. I couldn’t see a better way.”

“You tricked me?” she asks with a smile.

“No. I was going to adhere to the terms of your deal. But my motivations were different to yours.”

“If you wanted to get to know me, why didn’t you just ask me on a date?”

The doors ping open and I walk her backwards out of the lift and into my apartment.

“I don’t really date. I didn’t want to get into murky waters. But I wanted to spend time with you. As soon as I met you, I knew you were different. I just couldn’t work out why. I needed some time to figure it out.”

“And you’ve figured it out?”

“Yeah, I figured out what made you different. I’d fallen in love with you.”

She grins up at me. “You wanted to bang me. That isn’t love.”

I chuckle. “I definitely wanted to bang you.” I lift her up and she wraps her legs around my waist and I head toward my bedroom. “But I used to meet plenty of attractive women. I was in love with you. Even then.”

“You’re such a cheesy guy.”