Leaning back, Tristan swirls his wine. “How did you know?”
“You asked me about me about culinary school and if I was happy in my job. And now I find out that you worked in the food industry. It’s not a huge leap.”
He laughs. “Well, it’s not set in stone yet.”
“Tell me.”
Tristan reaches across the table and takes my hand. It’s such a common gesture, but it pulls at my gut. I love that we can do this. Hold hands and just talk. “They’re a restaurant that specializes in menus that are community focused. Very experimental. I reached out to them and suggested that Leighton City would be a good match to open a new place, and if they were in fact interested in opening a place that I had a lead on a promising new chef that could be a perfect fit for what they’re looking for.”
Holy shit.
It’s like he read between the lines of what I wanted to do. Creating a menu that is based on community needs and ingredients? Helping build a place that’s experimental by nature instead of trying to change a restaurant that’s already set in its ways? It sounds like a dream come true.
I love my job, but Tristan was right when he noticed that it’s not my whole life. I like connecting with people and I can’t really do that when I’m stuck in a lab most of the time. The focus groups are one thing, but they’re generally more interested in getting free ice cream than helping in the act of creation.
Plus, as much as I love my family, I don’t imagine there’s much room for growth at Thompson’s. Dad is happy with me in my role, and I don’t think I want him to tap me to be the new CEO. If I want to create something truly new and feel any sort of upward motion in my career, I’m going to need to do it somewhere else.
And I’m still staring at Tristan, because I’m completely and totally speechless. “Are you serious?”
“I am.”
Excitement bubbles in my chest but I try to tamp it down. He said that it wasn’t a sure thing. “What’s the likelihood of this happening?”
“I still have some pull there. If I can prove that Leighton City would be a profitable place, I think they’ll go for it. Just like Thompson’s, they’re actively looking to expand into new markets.”
“I have no idea what to say.”
He grins. “So you’re interested?”
“Yes, I’m interested!” I jump out of my chair and practically tackle him, straddling his lap and kissing him absolutely senseless. “How did you know that I would like something like this?”
The look on his face is serious. “Because we keep forgetting that we both know each other pretty well. Four years apart doesn’t erase the history we have. I know it’s tricky, but it’s still our history. And everything I know about you tells me that you don’t want to be strapped down to the family company for the rest of your life. You want freedom and vibrance and more than that job can give you, even if you love it.”
“I love you,” I say. The words just fall out of my mouth. I wasn’t planning on saying it now, but I can’t stop it, and the air goes still between us with the admission. “I love you, Tristan, so much. I’ve always loved you, and I haven’t been able to say it.”
The look on his face is filled with an emotion that I can’t name. But it’s so deep that I feel it in my bones. “I love you too, Nicola. I’m sorry that it took me this long to say it.”
Unexpected tears prick my eyes, and I lean my forehead on his shoulder. His hands lock behind my back, and with my arms around his neck, we fit perfectly together. This isn’t like the movies, where after the perfect admission of love the couple gets swept away into a crazy scene of sex in perfect lighting with emotional music.
It’s more than that. It’s too big of a moment for me to do anything but hold onto him. We’ve been reaching out for each other and both floundering, but this is real. I love this man, and just like I knew that he was the one for me four years ago, today I can’t imagine my life without him. No matter what happens, no matter what happened in the past, I want to be with him.
There’s a settling in my gut. A certainty that hadn’t quite been there since he came back to town, but I feel it now. He’s mine, and I’m his. Lifting my face up, his lips find mine. It’s purifying fire, burning away the unease and the doubt, binding us together in a way that neither of us will forget.
I can feel him hardening beneath me, and my own passion is rising in time with his cock, but I don’t want to leave this moment yet. “Is this crazy?” I ask, between kissing him and sharing his breath. “Are we crazy? It doesn’t seem possible that this could happen. To find each other at all.”
Tristan’s voice is a rumble that I feel from his chest to mine. “It feels crazy, but it’s not. Whatever is out there in the universe, it’s on our side. I love you. I’ll always love you, no matter what happens.”
I brush my hand over his face, tracing the lines of his features. I love the signs of his laughter and the pure color of his green eyes. I love everything about him. “I wasn’t planning on saying that tonight,” I whisper. “It just slipped out.”
“I’m glad that you did. I’ve been dying to say it, but I didn’t know if you were ready to hear it.” He stands, lifting me up with ease, and I gasp. I haven’t gotten used to the fact that he can pick me up like a feather and just carry me. We’re almost to the stairs when I wrap my arms around his waist. “And I was going to offer to watch a movie with you before we skipped to the sex.”
“Fuck that,” I say, running my tongue along his neck.
Another rumbling chuckle. “I was planning on fucking you.”
“That’s also a good plan,” I say. “And I have a surprise for you.”
Tristan makes a questioning sound as he pushes the door to his bedroom open with his foot. “What’s that?”
“You’ll have to undress me to find out.”
I can hear the smile in his voice. “That’s definitely the kind of surprise that I like then.” He sits me down on the bed, and runs his hands down my ribs, finding the hem of my soft shirt. I lift my arms and let him pull it over my head, exposing the black, scrappy lingerie bodysuit that clings to my skin and disappears into my pants.
Tristan blows out a breath. The look on his face is every bit as perfect as I imagined that it would be. He consumes me with his eyes, and I have no doubt that he’s already doing deliciously dirty things to me in his mind. “That is a very good surprise.”
His voice heats me up, specifically between my legs. “Care to see the rest of it?” I hook my fingers into the waistband of my jeans and shimmy them off my hips and to the floor. Then I lean back and strike what I hope is a pinup pose on his bed.
The straps of this lingerie weave in and out of each other, gathering over my breasts and through my legs and leaving little else to the imagination. I take my hair down from where it’s pinned up and shake it out, meeting his eyes. Tristan is so hard that I can see it through his jeans, and my mouth waters just thinking about what he’s hiding in there. “You have too many clothes on,” I tell him.
He strips out of his shirt and dumps it on the floor. His abs are more lickable than the ice cream that we make, and I lean back off the bed, catching him by a belt loop and pulling him closer. I do exactly that. I place my lips to his skin and trace the lines of his abs with my tongue.