Total pages in book: 184
Estimated words: 176002 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 880(@200wpm)___ 704(@250wpm)___ 587(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 176002 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 880(@200wpm)___ 704(@250wpm)___ 587(@300wpm)
“I can help,” he says, but I shake my head.
“No, chill out. Enjoy yourself. Watch Rocky and put your feet up. Get your butt on the sofa and relax.”
“Talking of sofas,” he says, and props himself on an elbow at the breakfast bar. “I was thinking. Rather than letting that piece of shit Richard wreck your dreams, why don’t you keep the items you ordered to furnish your new apartment? We can shift things around in here to accommodate them.”
“I’ve cancelled a load of them,” I say. “Don’t worry, I’ll wait until I get a place again. I’ll have my flash brocade sofa one day. I’ve been browsing apartments online. There are plenty that won’t involve Richard wanker Jacobs.”
He takes my hand and runs his thumb across my knuckles, and his green eyes dig into mine.
“You’re more than welcome to stay here. I’ve worked out where we can have your sofa. We can side angle mine and have yours right there.” He gestures to the spot.
A warm glow flows through me at his words, at what he might be inferring…
I shake my head. “That’s lovely, Josh, but you don’t have to invite me in long term, and you definitely don’t have to accommodate my sofa.”
Shit. I so want to wrap my arms around his neck and say thanks.
“I don’t have to, Ells. I want to. There’s a very big difference. The question is, do you want to stay?”
Oh fuck, his eyes. They bore into my very soul. Even if I try to play it down, he’d see right through me, so I take a breath, and squeeze his hand.
“I’d love to stay, thank you.”
His grin lights up my whole world.
“Phew, thank fuck for that. I’d be devastated to have you so much as a single tube stop away.”
“Yeah, well, same goes. Tit for tat.” I look at him in wonder. “Thank you. Really. Thanks”
“No, thank you. I didn’t realise how lonely I’d become until you came along. You’re like the piece of a jigsaw I’ve been missing, only I didn’t even know I’d been missing one. It isn’t about Amy, either. It’s about you. About us. It feels like a whole different jigsaw entirely.”
My stomach flutters, because I feel the same. Being here feels like home already. I even know where to put the parsley and thyme in his kitchen.
“You don’t have to house the sofa, though.” I grin at him. “I’ve already cancelled it.”
He shows me the screen on his phone. “Yeah, I know, but I found it. It’s pretty distinctive in black and gold.”
He clicks buy as I watch him.
“Josh!” I say, but it’s done. The green tick comes up. Order completed.
“You’re welcome, baby. You can have as many sofas here as you want.”
I race around the breakfast bar, throw my arms around his neck, and press myself against his sweaty, hot torso, with a lump in my throat. Gratitude, love, security. All the things I’ve been missing for years, even though I didn’t know it. They were just faded versions of dreams. Fake, and fed to me on a cheap, crappy spoon.
The three words come straight off my tongue now, even though they are choked up.
“I love you.”
“What?” he says, his mouth up against my ear as he holds me tight.
“You heard me,” I whisper, pulling away to look him in the eyes.
His smile melts me.
“I know, I just want to hear you say it again.”
I laugh, on a high, happiness filling my very soul.
“I love you, Josh.”
The beautiful man in front of me kisses my lips so gently, the prince of romance as his breaths match mine.
“I love you too, Ella.”
We stay entangled for a long moment, and I feel my heart singing. I belong with him. I belong here. I feel more at home in his presence than I’ve ever known.
He strokes my hair, and caresses my arm, and I count my lucky stars, grateful beyond words that the universe has been so kind to me – taking Connor out of my life and giving me something better than I could ever imagine.
Josh is the man of my wildest, craziest dreams.
The hurt and pain of my past betrayal get slammed under the trapdoor of bullshit where they belong. I lock it closed for good. Farewell and goodbye. I don’t need to feel them again, not anymore. And Josh doesn’t need to feel the same about his past, either. We’re in it together, for good.
“I’ll start moving some stuff around in this place for when yours starts arriving,” he says, and I hug him so tight, I’d crush him, if he wasn’t made of steel.
“Thanks,” I say. “And I’ll get started on our casserole.”
He claps his hands as I head back to the chef station.
“You’re making casserole? I fucking love casserole. It’s one of my absolute favourites.”