[continued from - "I love all of that, because I'm falling in love with you Julian."]If he hadn't been still already, he would have stilled at that. As it was, his breath nearly stopped, or perhaps that was his heart, and then it started again in a warm flood of emotion that threatened to cut it all off again. He could feel every shift of her body, the words themselves seeming to reach down and reverberate between where they were joined. Each kiss felt as if it had been a precursor, leading to words that he hadn't expected to hear, even as he was picking the perfect roses, a wine he thought she'd enjoy, things for breakfast, for dinner. Each moment, each carefully laid plan, each thought to both preference and delight...they'd all danced around this, around wanting to make her smile, wanting to make her feel cared for, special...cherished. He swallowed, lips curving in a smile in a response to hers, the same sort of amazement flaring in his eyes, because whatever he had felt for rather a long time now, somehow he had not expected to hear any such thing from her, at least not now, not yet. He shifted, searching for words, fingers tracing lightly down the line of her cheek, along her jaw. His fingers brushed over her lips and then he kissed her again, taking that moment to ease breath around the lump in his throat. He smiled against her lips, then eased back again. When he smiled this time, it was more of a wicked smirk, though the glint in his eyes was softer, shining with a quiet sort of happiness very few people ever got to see from him. "Well, that is certainly good to hear," he murmured, tucking her hair back behind her ear, fingers tracing along her jaw again, "Since I am fairly certain I fell in love with you when you threatened to gag me. I was wondering if you'd ever catch up."
( Even as he seemed to still even more at her words... )