Falling for Fitz (21 page)

She didn’t know who was more surprised
by the sudden smile that spread across her face with a soft laugh.
He had an arsenal of good sense, of wisdom and judgment inside his
head. She just needed to know that it didn’t fly out the window
from the strength of their chemistry.

“
I love you,” she murmured,
holding his gaze, knowing in her heart that her children would
smile back at her with those eyes someday.

And suddenly the stern concentration
of his face softened as he grinned back at her. “I love you,
too.”

“
Don’t make the case,” she
said.

He flinched and his brows furrowed
together lightly in confusion.

“
Don’t leave it alone,
either,” she said.

He shook his head, his palms open, at
a loss.

“
Just give me a little
time, okay? This…
you
… are too important to me to make big mistakes out of the
gate.”

“
We’re going to make
mistakes, Daisy.”

“
I know,” she said. “But
we’ve earned a little clear sailing, haven’t we?”

He took a deep breath and nodded,
giving her a small smile. “Okay.”

“
Hey,” she said, “you asked
me what I was doing today and since I’m going to put the apartment
search on hold for now, what did you have in mind?”

His eyes sparkled. “Well, speaking of
sailing… have you ever kayaked before?”

Daisy told him she didn’t know what
hurt more by five o’clock: her stomach, which growled with the
force of hundred junkyard dogs, or her arms, which had not, in
fact, kayaked before. Fitz told her that he refused to have
sympathy for her, since it had been such a gorgeous, calm day on
the water and he’d done most of the work. This had earned him a
frown and short-lived pout that she’d reversed when he asked if
she’d stay overnight again.

They stopped by Felix and Susannah’s
place so that Daisy could pack a quick bag and Fitz called for
Chinese at a place near his apartment where he had an account. By
the time they arrived at his place, the food was waiting with the
doorman.

They didn’t bother setting
the table, opting instead to sit side by side on the floor in front
of the coffee table eating directly out of the cartons, finally
ending up sated and satisfied, spooned on the couch watching
The Holiday
.

“
Jude Law is such a
manwhore,” said Daisy, who was lying in front of him with his arm
draped over her hips. “He’d definitely play Alex in The English
Brothers movie.”

Fitz chuckled into her neck, holding
her tighter. It amazed him a little to realize that this comment
didn’t get his hackles up. For as much as he agreed with Daisy,
he’d thrown punches at people for saying less about his brothers.
They were fiercely protective of one another, regardless of how
different they each were. But, Daisy was so much a part of him, so
much like family to him, she was on the special list of people who
could say whatever she wanted to about his brothers.

“
Apparently he used to
follow us around a lot that summer.”

The back of her head knocked into his
chin when she whipped back clumsily to catch his eyes. “Ouch! Are
you kidding me?”

“
Nope. He told me last
week,” he said, rubbing his chin.

“
Ugh. I adore him, but he
is seriously disgusting.” She made a revolted noise and then
resettled in Fitz’s arms. “How am I supposed to look him in the
eye?”

“
He said you were the
hottest thing he’d ever seen.”

“
Oh yeah?” her voice
softened appreciably. “So I could’ve had Alex English,
huh?”

He threw a leg over hers and growled.
“No.”

He felt her stomach rumble with
laughter and pressed his lips to her hair.

“
Why do you think he does
it?” she asked. “Do you think he really enjoys that endless parade
of women? Don’t you think he ever wants something deeper? More
meaningful?”

“
Honestly? Not really. I
think Alex is Alex. He’s always loved women. Women have always
loved him. He doesn’t take them seriously, and they don’t take him
seriously. I think he’s having a great time.”

“
Nuh-uh,” she protested.
“It’s got to be lonely. He doesn’t have
this
.”

She wiggled her ass against Fitz’s
groin, and he bit back a groan. They were both exhausted, and yet
it had been eighteen and a half hours since he last had sex with
her. It was starting to take over his thoughts.

“
Quit it,” he said in a low
voice, tightening his arm again, “or I won’t be responsible for my
actions.”

She stopped wiggling, and he was
slightly disappointed.

“
I don’t think Alex wants
this,” said Fitz softly. “Though he doesn’t know what he’s
missing.”

“
Someday someone will come
along, Fitz, and she’ll knock him on his ass. I just hope whoever
she is, she can overlook his past, because if she ends up falling
for him, she’ll have to. Either way, she’ll make him change his
ways, you mark my words. She’ll make him crazy.”

“
Like you make
me.”

She turned in his arms and pressed her
lips to his. “Like you make me.”

“
I love you.”

“
I love you
back.”

“
Move in with
me?”

She took a deep breath and sighed, her
lips still turned up slightly in the smile she’d worn since she
faced him.

“
Ask me tomorrow,” she
whispered, kissing him again.

She flipped back over to watch the
movie, but he didn’t feel like watching it anymore. He wanted to
talk to Daisy. He wanted to hear her voice. And yes, he wanted to
get her into bed.

“
So who would play Barrett
in The English Brothers movie?”

“
Barrett? The Undisputed
Master of the Universe?”

“
What?” he
asked.

“
That’s what Em and Val
call him.”

Spending a brief moment
grumpily wondering why
he
wasn’t called the “Undisputed Master of the
Universe” Fitz quickly remembered that he’d never aspired to it. He
was happy letting Barrett be, well, Barrett.

“
Okay. So, who would play
him?”

“
Hmmm,” she said, thinking.
“Serious alpha male. Sean Connery. Pierce Brosnan. Daniel Craig.
Someone strong and untouchable and perfect. Oooh. Maybe Aaron
Eckhardt. He’s got that intense, strong-jawed thing going
on.”

“
Oh, you must not have
heard me. I didn’t ask about me. I asked about Barrett,” he said
drily, then added, “and do you realize that, with the exception of
Aaron Eckhardt, you just named all the actors who played James
Bond?”

Daisy chuckled, rolling onto her back.
Fitz stayed on his side, braced on an elbow, his other hand flat on
her belly as he looked down at her.

“
Barrett is…intimidating.
Uber type-A. Intense. You’re Fitz.” She shrugged, smiling up at
him. “You love me.”

“
I do,” he said, leaning
down to brush her lips with his, grateful even for that small
intimacy, and for Daisy lying beside him casting a movie about his
life.

“
Okay. Enough about Barrett
before I barf. Who’d play Stratton?”

Daisy sighed. “I adore Stratton. We
logged a lot of hours reading side by side at the pool that summer.
Best reading company I ever had. He never really lost the shy
thing, though, did he?”

Fitz shook his head.

“
You worry about
him?”

Fitz swallowed, thinking about his
younger brother who he loved so much. “Sometimes. I don’t think
he’s ever had a girlfriend.”

“
Fitz…” She looked at him
like he was being ridiculous.

“
I’m serious.”

And he was. Unless Stratton was
incredibly tight-lipped about his college years, there hadn’t been
anyone. There’d been ample opportunity, of course, and Fitz had
offered—many times—to be Stratton’s wingman if he wanted to ask
someone out. But, Stratton had always smiled back and shook his
head no, gently closing the conversation.

“
Does he like
women?”

“
Yeah, he likes women,”
said Fitz defensively. “Hooking up isn’t his problem, especially
after a few drinks. Dating is.”

Daisy sighed. “Well, to answer your
question, I choose Ryan Gosling to play Stratton. He does shy
really well.”

“
Another hot
actor.”

“
Well, you can’t fault me
there. Didn’t you hear that the English Brothers are scorching
hot?”

“
All of them?”

“
Especially the second
one.”

“
I’m taking you to bed in
five minutes.”

“
Then I guess I better get
to Weston.”

“
I guess you better,” he
said, leaning down to lick her ear, “because he’s not getting into
bed with us.”

“
Alex Pettyfer,” she said
in a throaty voice. “Alex Pettyfer as Weston.”

“
I have no idea who that
is,” Fitz said, blowing on the skin he’d just licked and feeling
her quiver beside him.

“
Then you’re missing out,”
she said, her eyes getting darker and needier. “Another scorching
hot actor.”

“
Last question… who plays
Fitz?”

“
Fitz can’t be in the
movie.”

“
Why not?”

“
Because someone would have
to play Daisy, and I’d have to watch her kiss him. And I couldn’t
handle watching fake Daisy kiss fake Fitz. I’d want to hurt fake
her for touching fake you.”

“
I belong to
you
, Daisy.”

“
You better believe
it.”

His hand slipped under her shirt,
cupping one of her breasts through her bra, rubbing his thumb
across the nipple until it was hard, and Daisy was breathing faster
beneath him.

He held her eyes and vowed, “No one’s
ever kissing me again, ever… except for you.”

“
It’s been five minutes,”
she said, staring up into his eyes. “Time to take me to
bed.”

***

Daisy woke up at her regular time on
Sunday morning, glancing at the clock on Fitz’s bedside table,
surprised to see that it was eight o’clock and he was still beside
her, holding her naked body snuggly against his.

“
You’re finally awake.” He
sighed against her neck.

“
So are you.” She turned to
look at him and had to bite back a moan. Fitz was always sexy, but
first thing in the morning? With bedhead and a happy grin? He was
crazy beautiful. “Why are you still in bed with me?”

“
I woke up two hours ago,”
he confessed, his eyes profoundly tender as he gazed at her sleepy
face. “But I asked myself—is there really anywhere else in the
world you want to be right now? The woman you love, the most
beautiful, most amazing woman on earth, is sleeping next to you.
Why would you want to go anywhere else? And so I watched the sun
come up through the windows. I saw the way it turned your hair from
white to gold over the course of an hour while I felt you breathe
in and out against my chest. I closed my eyes and smelled your hair
and memorized the feeling of your body in my arms, the way your
legs entwine with mine. If I tried to pull away, yours were like
magnets, following mine. So I kept them all tangled together and
yours were happy. Your back arches every so often, like its making
sure I’m still here, and your spine presses against my ribs
stealing my breath for a second because nothing has ever felt like
you beside me, and I don’t want any more nights when your spine
doesn’t steal a little of my breath. There is nothing softer than
the skin of your tummy and nothing warmer than the skin under your
breasts and you sigh in your sleep, did you know that? You sigh.
And I decided it’s the last sound I want to hear before I die,
Daisy. I want to hear you. Sighing beside me.”

By the time he finished speaking, her
face was wet with tears, washing away nine years of pain with his
beautiful words that made everything better, that made her never,
ever want to leave the heaven of his arms.

“
Make love to me,” she
whispered, closing the distance between their lips and pressing her
body flush against his.

He threaded his hands in her hair,
parting the seam of her lips with his tongue and searching for
hers. Daisy rolled slightly onto her back and Fitz followed her,
covering her soft body with his hard one, his erection pressing
insistently against her softness as he gently ravished her mouth
with his.

“
I want you, Fitz,” she
whispered against his cheek as he kissed her throat, resting his
lips against the throbbing pulse he found there. She grabbed a foil
packet from his bedside table, tearing it open.

He rolled onto his back and as she
kissed him, Daisy rolled the condom over him quickly. She threw a
leg over his waist and without waiting another moment, she took the
base of his erection in her hand and lowered herself onto
him.