Oh God, to be touched like this…it was far too much and somehow not nearly enough at all.

I wanted to describe all the ways I desired her by using my fingers to write the thoughts on her skin.

And the questions in her eyes made me feel even more afraid. I didn’t have any answers. All I had were a million questions of my own.

It’s like, the second I saw him, my life started. The second I started loving him, everything clicked into place for me. As confusing as our situation is, inside it feels like it all makes the most perfect sense.

And I was going to try to wait until maybe you were ready to say it, too, but…I can’t. Because it literally wants to burst out of me all the time. And so it’s okay if you don’t love me, or if you’re not sure if you do. But I’m sure. And I can’t stand letting another minute go by where I don’t tell you I love you, because I do. I. Love. You. I love you so much.

His eyes opened and they roamed my face for several beats, his expression almost reverent, before he said, I’m in love with you, too. He let out a breath. I am so desperately in love with you.

He ran his nose over my skin, and then I felt his lips again as his mouth formed the words, I love you, I love you, I love you.

There are so many things I feel like I still need to figure out and so many things working against us.

Me: Guess what? I’m back on the road.

Archer: What? How?

Me: I miss you. I need to come home.

Archer: Is this your home, Bree?

Me: Yes, Archer, my home is where you are.

Come back to me, Bree. I miss you so much it feels like a part of myself is missing.

How was it that anything bad could happen under a sky that clear, that cloudless and blue?

“Loving you isn’t a burden. Loving you is an honor and a joy, Archer.”

She asked me the sign for love and I spelled out your name.

Bree let out small sound, somewhere between a laugh and a sob. “So now she’s going to go around saying, ‘I Bree you’?” she asked, smiling, her eyes soft.

I nodded. Yeah. I turned toward her more fully, focusing on her face. I stand by my logic, though. I think love is a concept, and each person has an individual word for what sums it up for them. My word for love is “Bree.”

“How’d you get so brilliant?” she asked, letting out a breathy laugh and a small sniffle.

I was already brilliant. I just needed some world experience. I needed Thor.

She let out another small laugh and then grinned at me. You being funny?

I grinned back at her, noting that she was finally using her hands to speak. No, I never joke about Thor.

her eyes told me I was loved. I was loved by the beautiful woman lying beneath me, ready to invite me into her body.

I thought to myself, Archer Hale’s voice was one of the most beautiful things in the whole wide world.

I grabbed her hand and pulled her into my arms, kissing her lips and falling in love with her, just like I still did a thousand times a day.