I couldn't move. I couldn't speak. I couldn't even breathe. Never in a million years would I have thought I would react like this to those three little words, nor could I have imagines just how good it felt to hear them. I've been wanting to hear him say them for so long and all I could do was stare wide-eyed at him while my heart raced.

It was almost like a trace that made me contemplate if I was dreaming, but it felt too real for that. Suddenly, when his hand reached up and his fingers stroked my hair back, I snapped out of it.

"Look, I'm sorry if I scared you—"

"No! It's not that!" I quickly cut him off, seeing the way his eyebrows furrowed in worry and the wave of disappointment beginning to wash over his eyes.

"Then,What is it?" He asked, the worried expression still etched in his face.

"I was just wondering if I was dreaming," I mumbled.

Noticeably, his shoulders relaxed and he let out a breath. "Well, I said it," his hand rested on my cheek while he placed a lingering quick kiss to my lips. "I love you, Amelia."

I broke out into a smile. "Really?"

He laughed. "Of course, why wouldn't I love you?"

I pulled his head down to meet mine and kissed him with all the love and passion I could give. He kissed me back for a few moments, but then gently pulled away.

"You know, you never replied. I mean, I get you might be scared to say—"

I covered his mouth with the palm of my hand, which he rolled his eyes and gently pushed my hand away to rest on his cheek instead.

"Nick, of course I love you,"

In a split second, I saw the flash of a giant smile and then he pulled me even closer and kissed me as if he couldn't get enough of me.

He slid himself between my legs and started to take off my top. Well, we'll be up for a little bit longer.

~*~

I woke up by stretching almost like a cat to try and relieve my sore muscles. I tried to keep my movements to a minimum, but all my wiggling around woke Nick up. I heard a deep chuckle from behind me and then his warm palm pushing my shoulder down so I was on my stomach.

I heard the bed sheets ruffling and then some on his weight on top of me. Then, his palms pressed into my back and rubbles circles all around my spine, soothing my sore muscles instantly.

"Nick," I moaned.

He kept his motions going, while he leaned down and whispered, "I love that sound coming from your mouth,"

I shivered instantly, and I just knew he was smirking from my reaction. He kept massaging my back for a bit while I let out moans every now and them. God, if this isn't heaven, I don't know what is.

"Are you asleep?" He questioned as he slowly stopped his movements.

"Not yet," I mumbled into the pillow.

"I would love to do this to you all day, but I have to go to work and you told me you wanted to go over to Lily's to cook for Ryan's surprise birthday party,"

"I completely forgot about that," I groaned.

"I can cancel and order food instead if you want," he suggested.

"No, I want to cook. I love cooking," i almost incoherently mumbled.

He chuckled and pecked my cheek. "I know you do,"

"I know you know," I giggled. "With this laziness, I'm going to fall asleep on the couch and burn Ryan and Lily's house down,"

"For Ryan's sake, let's hope that's not his birthday surprise,"

I let out a wholehearted laugh. "His reaction would be so funny though," I said through the giggles.

"I can picture it so easily," he laughed.

~*~

"Hey, Lils!" I greeted her at the door and hugged her.

"Come in, Ames!" She greeted back.

"Ames?" I questioned.

"You gave me such a cute nickname, so I thought to give you one too,"

"I kind of like. Lils and Ames, huh?" I thought about it.

"Good," she clapped her hands. "Now, I don't mean to be rude, but please help me cook. I basically only bake, so I need help with almost everything but the cake,"

"Don't worry about it. I'm happy to help,"

"Thank god for that!" She exclaimed.

Once we got into the groove of everything we were going at a steady pace. She carefully measured all the ingredients for all the pastries, and I haphazardly threw in ingredients into different pans, while we both danced to the beat of the music she blasted through the speakers. Apparently, she loved to do everything to music, so Ryan set up speakers through the house which she could pick which rooms the music would play in.

"I seriously don't know how you do that," she commented.

"Huh?"

"You just throw in random ingredients and assume they're the right proportions and it ends up tasting amazing. I could never do that," she explained.

"You just get the hang of it. I personally don't really like baking anything complicated because I always mess up on the measurements. One time I made a cake, and the recipe called for half a teaspoon of baking powder, but I misread that and added half a tablespoon of baking soda, so my cake ended up tasting like metal,"

By the end of my story, she was almost on the floor dying of laughter. I swear she probably was having trouble breathing from all the laughing. "I can't believe you did that," she wiped her eyes. "I would have killed to see your reaction when you took the first bite," she kept laughing.

"It was just a lot of rinsing my mouth," I giggled.

"I guess there are two types of people: chefs and bakers," she shrugged.

~*~