Falling For Ace

Fifty-seven

I V Y

My breath got caught in the back of my throat at his words, my eyes widened and my lips parted.

"I love you," he repeated, bringing his hand to the side of my face as he rubbed his thumb on my right cheek, staring at me straight in his eyes which was filled with adoration, honesty and love, "I love you so fucking much, Ivy."

I opened my mouth to say it back but no words came out. I was still under the shock of hearing those three words from him to me. We've known each other for around five months, been dating for three of them yet I felt like I've known him since forever. I don't know when was the exact moment I fell for him—probably the day he brought me to that other house of his, the first we day we slept together.

I glanced at him to see a small look of disappointment on his features. He let out a sigh, "it's okay if you don't feel the same way. I just wanted you to know that I love you."

He was about to drop his hand from my face when I held it in mine, gripping it tightly as I looked up at him with a smile on my face, "I love you too."

His eyes slightly widened and his lips parted, probably in shock. Is that what I looked like? "You do?" He questioned, "really?"

"I love you," I repeated, letting go of his hand as I wrapped my own around his neck, our faces inches away from each other, "of course I do." He smiled, lowering his head a little as he took my lips in his, kissing me in a way that weakened my knees. His fingers were tangled in my hair in the back of my head as he ran the tip of his tongue across my bottom lip, wordlessly asking for me to open my mouth to grant him acess. I parted my lips ever so lightly and he took the opportunity to slide his tongue inside my mouth, a groan emitting in the back of my throat. Our tongues swirled and danced together as we clung to each other, neither of us wanting to let go.

But we eventually did. I had my hands on his shoulders, my head slightly lowered, taking in deep breaths as did he. He then wrapped his arms around me, resting his chin on the top of my head. I could feel his chest rising upwards and downwards as he tried to regulate his breathing like I was.

"Why were you so nervous on saying those three simple words?"

He chuckled, his chest vibrating, "I was thinking of the different ways of how it could turn out."

"What ways did you think of?"

"Well," he cleared his throat, "I thought you wouldn't say it back and walk away, saying that you didn't feel the same or some shit. I also thought that you'd slap me—"

"Slap you?" I cut him off, my brows furrowed as I broke the hug and looked up at him, "why on earth would I slap you?"

"That's the thing. I don't know, I was nervous." He responded, throwing an arm across my shoulders as we both looked at the sky in front of us. The sun was beginning to set. I've always loved that part of the day, it was my favourite. "I thought of all the stupid stuffs that could happen. One of them even ended in you pushing me off this cliff and then I thought of how much of a bad idea it was to bring you here to confess my undying love for you."

"Wow," I chuckled, "you overthink way too much."

"Maybe," he shrugged, "it's because I'm spending too much time with you. I'm becoming like you."

"What? No, " I raised my brows, glancing at him, "I don't overthink."

"Yeah," he scoffed, "you do. Anyway, you want to jump?"

"Pass," I responded, looking down at the lake as several possibilities of what could go wrong flashed in my mind. I could drown, my head could hit a rock, I could get seriously injured. Oh shit, he was right.

"Well, your loss." He dropped his arm from my shoulders and removed his shirt and pants as well, leaving him in only his boxers, "I'm going for a swim. It's always nice to swim at this time of the day, you know?"

"What, you're going to leave me up here?" I asked to which he nodded, "you don't wanna come with."

"How are you going to come back up?"

"Climbing," he replied, "obviously. You coming or not? I promise the water's nice. It's worth it, trust me."

"Fine," I removed my shirt, trying to ignore his eyes that were shamelessly roaming around my body. I removed my pants and placed them on top of Ace's clothes. I rolled my eyes at him, "can you stop looking at me as if you've never seen me in my underwear before?"

He smirked at that but didn't advert his eyes.

"What if someone comes and steal our clothes?"

"This is a private property, darling." He smirked, "nobody's allowed here without my permission."

"I should've known," I muttered earning a chuckle from behind me. "Ready to jump?"