Leaning over, I pressed my lips to hers. Before I knew it, I was setting my coffee down and wrapping my arms around her and kissing her like I’d never see her again. My father cleared his throat and I broke our kiss. Pulling back enough to look into her eyes I whispered, “I’m sorry I broke your heart, but I swear I’ll spend the rest of my life putting it back together.”
One single tear fell from her eye as she pressed her lips to mine and whispered against them, “Tristan.”
Ryn and I had been driving over a two-mile radius as we checked out possible building locations. When I asked Ryn what she was thinking about for our house, she smiled and said, “I don’t know. This is all so crazy! I have a million ideas floating in my head.”
“What are you thinking you want to do with your house in Austin?” I asked.
“I’m not sure I want to sell my house in, Austin. It’s in such a great area and I think I could rent it out for over two thousand a month. I have some money saved up in my savings, so I guess we’ll have to come up with a budget we are both comfortable with. This is a huge step, Tristan, and we just got back together so I’m trying to process it all.”
Nodding my head, I took her hand. “I know, baby. I don’t want you to give up anything. I realize this is huge, I mean, I basically asked you to move in with me, in the middle of South Texas. And oh yeah, we have to build a house. I’m doing one hell of a good job scaring you away.”
Laughing, she punched me lightly in the stomach. “You could never scare me away. I finally feel like I’m home and I never want to leave.”
Placing my hand on the side of her face, I gave her smile. “Ryn, you know you don’t have to worry about money, baby. I can afford to build the house no problem.”
Nodding her head, she barely said, “I know.”
She looked a million miles away and I wanted to know what was making her pull back. Ryn knew I had money, a lot of money, but she never asked me how I came into it. My parents were well off, but both sets of my grandparents were very well off. Lark and I both received a good chunk of money from them when they passed away. After we each bought expensive-ass condos in down town Austin, we treated ourselves to the shop and our toy cars. The rest we have invested in real estate and other ventures.
“Talk to me, Ryn.”
Pursing her lips, she looked away. Placing my finger on her chin, I turned her face back to me and pulled her lip out from her teeth. Leaning in, I gently kissed her. “Please don’t pull away, baby.”
Smiling weakly, she began talking. “I know you have money, Tristan. I know Lark has money. Azurdee mentioned once y’all getting some from your grandparents but I never questioned or asked anything else, it wasn’t my business. This is such a big step and I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t scared. You pushed me away once when things got to serious, what if—”
“I’m not going anywhere, Ryn. I swear to you. I know what life was like without you and I don’t ever want to go there again. Ever.”
Smiling, she nodded her head. “Okay. I believe you. If we do this though, build a house and move in together, I want to feel like I’ve contributed to it. I don’t want you to have to foot the bill for everything just because you can. I don’t want you to think I’m going to take advantage of that.”
Placing my hands on the sides of her face, I tilted her head back, exposing her neck to me. Running my tongue along her neck, Ryn let out a moan. “You taste so damn good, Ryn.”
“Don’t change the subject, Tristan.”
Laughing, I placed a gentle kiss on her neck. “How about I let you decorate the entire inside?”
“All of it?”
Hmm . . . that got her attention. “Yep. All of it. It’s your blank canvas to do what you want.”
Giving me an incredulous stare, she raised an eyebrow up at me. “I can pay for decorating the inside of the house?”
Letting out a chuckle, I said, “Well, since you’re in charge of the inside it’s only fair you can pay for decorating the inside of the house.”
The smile that moved across her face caused my knees to wobble. “How does this happen? How do we go from pushing each other way to building a house and moving in together?”
Pulling my head back, I said, “You forgot the part where we are having great sex.”
Making a face she slowly nodded her head as she pointed to me. “That’s what it is. The sex. You won me over with your high-performance dick.”
Laughing, I said, “Hell yeah, I did!”