Page 83 of Yours, Finally

"I don't think I can go a full day without kissing you." I put my lips to her cheek, her cheekbone, her eyebrow. "And it's been two."

"That's why I found an excuse to come downstairs. I needed to be alone with you, even if only for three minutes."

I kissed her again. "We probably need to stop soon. They'll start wondering what's taking us so long."

"Only one more." She sucked on my bottom lip, then nipped on it. "One more."

We kissed one last time before we disentangled. I took a few steps back, sorely missing her already. My hand ended on a random red wine bottle, and I stared at it in confusion.

"I guess we can't risk being caught." I took the bottle out of its wooden diamond holder. "If someone saw us— that's when they might react the worst, I think."

"They might… mostly because we hid it from them."

"Did you give them a reason why you came downstairs?"

She picked a bottle of white wine. "I told them I didn't want red wine. Then I pretended to hesitate, for old-time's sake. Like I was unsure of having this alone time with you."

I tried to read the label on the bottle but I couldn't make sense of the words.

Vi sighed. "I also wanted to say, you missed the moment when Lina explained she's going to Mexico with Gabe."

Her words sharpened my focus. I gazed at her. She watched me and waited for me to connect the dots.

An amused smirk took over my lips. "Do you want to come stay with me at my condo?"

"I would love that." She grinned.

"I may not be able to take you out on proper dates, or have an excuse to scurry away with you to private moments everyone knows about… but we can have something special this weekend, too."

"Looking forward to it, but we should probably go up now if you don't want to fess up to everyone here tonight."

She made toward the glass door behind me. I didn't move, the expectation for the weekend and the dreams for a freer future where dates and weekends together were a common occurrence— it had gone away, replaced by cement in my shoes.

"I can't tell them yet," I admitted.

Vi stilled, gazing at me with an open face and understanding eyes. Sudden palpitations reminded me that her patience wouldn't last forever, and I needed to catch up. And that the people I didn't want to disappoint or make angry at me were upstairs waiting for wine.

"It's okay for now," she said. "I came up with this idea. I said we need an argument. We have more to talk about and figure out."

I nodded. She took my hand and led me out the wine cellar. Going up the stairs, she still held my hand, and squeezed it hard before letting go. When we sat at the table with everyone, she made up a quick excuse about not finding the wine she had wanted. No one seemed to question it.

The conversation went around us as usual, but I had a hard time talking after that. I remained quiet for most of the evening; all I could do was study her lips and wonder if anyone else could see they were still slightly swollen, and if they would wonder why. If they would reach the right— worst— conclusions.

When it was time for me to go home, I went without a kiss goodbye, but with a million thoughts about finding the right way to tell everyone that I wanted to be with Vi, but didn't want anything else to change.

Even though being with Vi changed everything.

Chapter 25

Jake

Our weekend together inmy condo didn't start on the best note. When Vi finally made it to my place on Friday after work, a frown marred her pretty face.

I greeted her with a kiss, excitement for our weekend together shimmering in my chest. Neither of us had changed; I still wore my trousers and my shirt— sans tie, at least— and she wore a beautiful teal wrap dress with an organic, leaf-like pattern on it. Dinner waited in the oven, but I wasn't opposed to eating something different first. In fact, I looked forward to it.

But first, we had to deal with the frown. I took her bag and dropped it on my bed; behind me, she gazed my way with her worried expression in place. I didn't ask, I knew she would share soon, from the way she stared at me.

"Okay," she said. "I'm going to get this out of the way."