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I remove my shirt in answer, my cock jumping behind my jeans as her eyes fall to where my hands work the buckle of my belt.

I push off the bed, unbuttoning my jeans, kicking out of them. Her eyes widen as she takes me in, and I stroke myself once, earning a small whimper from the deep of her throat before I climb over her again.

She spreads her legs wider around me, and I hiss in between my teeth as my dick finds the sweet warmth of her wet center.

I don’t ask her if she’s certain, I can feel that she is.

I just kiss her deeply as I line myself with her entrance, and slowly, I invade.

Slowly, I root myself in the only home I was ever meant to find.

Slowly, I make love to the only woman who ever has and ever could own my heart.

28

I LOVE YOU

JULY 2010 – 18 YEARS OLD

Tate moans around a forkful of cake. “This is the best cake I've ever had.”

I blush. Really, I don't know why I keep blushing. I just can't stop myself. This man—he makes me feel so much. So full. In more ways than one now.

Pun totally intended.

“Thank you. I tried.” I shimmy closer to the cookie sheet Tate put the cake on to bring to our bed. I'm still naked as the day I was born, but I've wrapped myself in a sheet. Tate threw on a pair of underwear, but other than that, he's naked and kind of glorious.

It's funny watching the way a boy's body turns into a man’s. It's a slow and yet oddly fast process.

Tate has filled out over the last year. His arms and his chest are defined and big…his hips are still narrow, but there's a girth to his thighs that wasn't quite there before. I like to tease him that he needs new jeans, because his are getting tight.

It's all the good food I cook, he tells me in response.

“So much for your birthday present.” I lick the icing off my fork, and Tate's eyes flick from the cake to mine.

“A present?” He grins roguishly up at me from where he lays on his side, propped up on an elbow. “Don't hold out on me. What did you get?”

I laugh at his excitement. “Two things, actually.”

His brows arch. “Two? Now I'm just spoiled.”

I wrinkle my nose at him. “Whatever.”

I slide my fork into the cake, taking another big bite. It's a good cake, but it could do without the strawberry filling. I'm not a fan. Tate, however, is gobbling it up, and it's his birthday, so that's all that matters.

Tate pushes to sitting. “Come on, what did you get me? I feel like a kid on Christmas.”

I smile, stretching as I reach for the top drawer of my nightstand. I pull out a small box wrapped in sea green tissue paper, topped with a gold bow.

The paper reminded me of his eyes the moment I saw it.

I hold it out to him. “It's from me and Owen. The next one is only from me.”

A single brow wings up in piqued curiosity, but he tears into the sea green paper, revealing a black box that he opens to find a new leather wallet. There's a gold plate stamped into the leather that I've engraved with three simple words.

I watch him read them. I watch the way his chest expands on a sharp inhale that he holds for a few beats before his eyes lift to mine.

I don't know that I've ever seen so much feeling in those sea green depths than I see now. There's so much emotion. So much of everything.