And Ferdie himself? He was off to wake James. As dangerous as that particular mission might be, it was impolite for his guests to rise before he’d risen himself. And as faithful as he might be to Little Lord Mayhem, the man prized decorum and manners above all.
We listened for a while longer, still sitting in silence on the bed. Then finally, when the silence could go on no longer, Nick cleared his throat softly and began to speak.
“Abby, I told James that we weren’t in a relationship, because I honestly didn’t know if we were in one myself. I wasn’t trying to be dismissive, I wasn’t trying to be glib. I could never be those things with you. I just...”
He took a deep breath, and forced himself onward.
“Whatever this is, it’s sprung from the strangest of circumstances. That doesn’t matter to me, but I don’t know if it matters to you. And the truth of the matter is, I’ve never...I’ve never actually felt this way about anyone, and I don’t—”
My lips closed over his, cutting short his heartfelt explanation with a sweet kiss.
We stayed frozen there for a minute. His face secure between both of my hands. His chin tilted up as I knelt tall in front of him. Then finally, and with a little smile, I released him.
I pulled back. He didn’t move.
“You just...that was a...”
For the first time in history, the man with all the clever answers didn’t know what to say. He simply stared at me with those impossibly blue eyes—eyes as wide as saucers. In the seconds that followed, his entire masterful vocabulary flew right out the window, and when he was finally able to finish his sentence, it was in exactly the same stilted, drunken child approximation that I’d fallen into the first time I’d seen the ring.
“...kiss.”
I bit my lip with a wide grin, struck by the adorable parallels. Deciding to take a page out of his book, I told him the exact same thing that he’d told me.
“That’s right, Nick,” I began patiently, “it was a kiss. Now do you maybe want to blink once or twice so I know that you’re still in there—”
My voice cut off with a shriek as he tackled me down on top of the mattress. His hands ran up through my hair as he lowered himself down on top of me—kissing me long and deep.
He took his time, savoring every second with a blissful sort of smile. When he was finally finished, he turned that smile onto me.
“I need a favor.”
I blinked up at him for a second, before throwing back my head with a laugh. It was breathless and unrestrained. Much how I was feeling myself at the moment.
“You need a favor.” I reached up and stroked the side of his face. “Of course you do.”
He caught my hand with a little grin, and kissed the inside of my palm. “I need you to translate something from the world of women, into the world of men. You see, I just told this girl that I was crazy about her—but was too much of an emotionally-stunted idiot to actually figure that out down on paper. Instead of punching me in the face—she kisses me.” He leaned back with a teasing frown. “Now what do you make of that?”
I wrapped my arms around his neck with a little smile, tilting back my head as I pretended to think it over. “Well...given that the girl in question is as fucking awesome as I’m assuming...”
He kissed my throat.
“She is.”
My teeth clamped down on my lip with another grin.
“Then I’d have to say that all she needed was a little clarity. A concrete word from you that this wasn’t all in her head.”
My voice grew serious in spite of myself, and I tilted down his face so we were looking each other in the eyes.
“She needed to know that she hasn’t fallen headfirst down this crazy rabbit-hole all by herself. That there’s someone there with her. And even if he’s confused, even if he has no idea what this is down on paper...it’s still something real.”
A wave of emotion crashed over him, and instead of kissing me—as had become his custom—he stayed right where he was, stroking back my hair as he stared steadily down into my eyes. When he spoke, it was soft but steady. Carefully weighing each word before he said it, thoughtfully considering each card before he laid it out in front of me.
“This is real. I don’t know what it is. I don’t know what to call it...but it’s real.”
A beaming smile lit my eyes, as I stretched up and gave him a soft kiss.
“Yes, it is.”