Knowing Me, Knowing You | (S/P)

Chapter 35

"Why, darling, I don't live at all when I'm not with you." Nathaniel recites the quote before closing the book and putting it down on the nightstand, alongside his reading glasses. It's Sunday afternoon, and we've spent the majority of the day reading in bed. Among other things.

"I don't ever want to leave this bed." I turn on my side, throwing a leg over his hips and snuggling closer to his chest.

"I hate to break the bubble, but we do have to be at campus tomorrow morning."

"Why would you remind me of that?" I smack his chest gently.

"Just a few more weeks. Then it'll all be over." Nathan pecks my nose, pulling me closer to him.

"I'm kind of going to miss it, though, sleeping with my professor." I wiggle my eyebrows, suppressing a laugh.

"You had to kill the vibe, didn't you?"

"It's my talent." I move to a sitting position so I'm now straddling him. His hands don't miss a beat to settle over my hips.

"Oh, I know about your talents. You've got quite a few." He has a cheeky smile as he rolls his hips in a tentative manner. 

"Nathan!"

"For example, you're very good at guessing quotes."

"I am." He looks thoughtful for a few, before he starts with what is a known game between us now.

"You are sunlight through a window, which I stand in, warmed. My darling." The way he says the last words makes my heart flutter, but I answer immediately nonetheless.

"The Miniaturist by Jessie Burton."

"That was quick." He admits as he looks into the distance, surely trying to find a harder one.

"You are my heart, my life, my one and only thought."

"The White Company by Arthur Conan Doyle, you're not even trying Nathaniel." Once again, my hand lands, alas this time gently, on his chest. He takes his left hand to the spot where I hit him, pretending to be hurt in agony as a grimace appears on his face.

Last Friday, when I told Abigail that I loved him, she had to pinch herself on the arm. Then she burst into tears. She said that coming from me, she knew just how very true those three words were. The tears obviously followed from my part.

Now, Nathaniel has never had trouble communicating how he really feels, whereas I have always relied on sarcasm and irony. But after that I admitted that I love him and just how much I care about him, every time he says something romantic it's like the words dive in deeper, because now I get it.

Now I know.

"Oh, sweetheart, I am trying." His deep voice and the intensity of his gaze, burning into mine, makes my eyes water. "Her love was entire as a child's, and though warm as summer it was fresh as spring."

"Far From The Madding Crowd by Thomas Hardy." My teeth sink into my bottom lip, and I'm doing my best effort to not ruin our little game with unnecessary waterworks.

In a nanosecond, Nathaniel rolls us over so now is him lying on top of me. His hand cup my face, his thumb tracing small circles. "Love starts as a feeling, but to continue is a choice. And I find myself choosing you, more and more every day."

Before anything else can happen, I circle his neck with my arms, erasing the distance between our lips.

This kind of happiness is something that I always deemed out of reach.