Simply Sexy

least she wasn't getting any more sleep than he was. Reaching out, he grasped her hand. 'I'm not looking to play games, either. It's an honest question.'

She glanced down at their intertwined hands, his darker skin, her softer, whiter flesh. 'I'm staying whether or not there's a place for me at the Times,' she admitted. 'Ashford is home now.'

He released a harsh breath. Now that, he hadn't expected to hear. 'Rina?'

She glanced up to meet his gaze.

'I'm glad.'

She blinked, moisture filling her eyes. 'You are? Why? Will you stay long enough for it to matter?'

'I told you the other day, I'm not going anywhere. My family is here, my new job is here, and most importantly, you're here.'

'Your family's always been here.'

He laughed. 'Leave it to you to point out the obvious. Yes, my family's always been here, but my heart hasn't been.'

She searched his expression, obviously looking deeper inside him. 'And now it is?'

He paused, wondering how to explain something he'd only just come to terms with himself. 'I needed to face my past in order to have a future. Or at least a stable one, anyway. I've done that now.' He squeezed her hand tighter. 'Thanks to you. From the day I met you, I recognized you were special. That you had the ability to change me.'

Rina's heart felt full. She didn't know whether to laugh because she seemed on the verge of getting everything she wanted, or cry because she was so afraid he was saying the words he wanted to believe but wasn't ready to act on. She was still afraid she'd lose him to his emotional fear.

Then again, there was the real possibility it was still her fear she was dealing with, not his. Knowing she had one chance left with Colin, she listened with an open mind, and she hoped with an open heart. 'Change you how?' she asked.

'For the better, of course.' He winked, then sobered quickly, looking at her with those intense blue eyes she adored. 'I never let Joe and Nell inside.' He tapped his chest. 'I couldn't because I feared it would mean being disloyal to my parents and losing them forever.'

He shook his head. 'Of course, they were already gone, but I didn't want to face that. So I ran. First into a marriage that was doomed from the start because we were so different, and then abroad. But now I've come home and faced the fact that I almost lost Joe. So I'm through running. I've got too much going for me here.'

Rina tipped her head to one side. 'Am I included in all that?'

'As long as you've stopped running, too.' He gestured to the torn resignation pages that had dropped to the floor. 'That was my doing. But you're the one who has to have the courage to stick around. I know you said you're staying, but…'

'Are you calling me a coward?' Rina tried to play things light but the situation was too serious. Too much was at stake, and her joking words fell flat.

Placing an arm around her shoulder, he lowered her to the couch, then met her gaze. 'I can't promise you I won't up and die on you, sweetheart,' he said, nailing her biggest fear.

Her heart began a rapid, pounding beat and her pulse rate skyrocketed. For the first time since knowing Colin, sexual desire wasn't the cause. Pure adrenaline was. That old fight-or-flight mechanism.

The time had come for her to make a stand. As Colin had done, she had to face her past and reach out for what she wanted, or regret it for the rest of her life. She'd come here intending to bare her feelings, but now fear lodged in her throat.

But she was letting it go. To move forward, not away. 'I can't promise you I won't panic every once in a while,' she warned him.

'I can handle a little panic,' he said wryly. 'In fact, I've gotten used to going out on a limb. I've talked Corinne into taking a second mortgage on their place. And I've co-signed for a loan, as well. I've held off the advertisers with a promise of better returns next quarter, and I paid off the guy who lent us money to keep the paper afloat. The only people controlling the Times now are me and Corinne. We're running things together.' He laughed. 'Who'd have thought?'

She blinked, stunned at his news. For one thing, he was working with Corinne, though she shouldn't be surprised. He'd do anything for Joe. Then there was his second bit of news. 'You put Joe's place-and your finances-on the line for the paper?'

He shook his head vehemently, shocking her. 'I did it for you.'

'What?' She wasn't sure she'd heard him correctly.

'I could have continued to use Ron's money and pay off the loan as the paper steadily gets back on its feet. He was willing. But I don't want you to ever doubt that I have faith in you or your abilities.'

Her heart soared higher than it had minutes earlier, strengthening the resolve she'd had all along to risk her heart on this man.

'Colin, I'm sorry. Because I feared another loss, I blamed you for not telling me about the loan, the paper, everything. But that was my problem to resolve, not yours. You never had to prove anything to me.' But he cared enough to try and she loved him even more for it. 'And now you've risked so much for me…I don't know what to say.'

'I do.' He treated her to the endearing, sexy grin she'd missed in the last week.

She leaned closer, waiting.

He stroked her cheek and an erotic, tingling sensation shot a path to her belly. A delicious, curling warmth settled inside her.

'You can say you love me, too,' he said.

She sucked in a deep breath, then exhaled as everything she'd dreamed of fell squarely into her lap. 'You love me?'

'That's what I said.'

'In a backhanded way.'

'Okay, so call it guy-speak. In female terms, that would be those infamous three words. I love you.'

He grinned, but she didn't miss the apprehension in his voice and she put him out of his misery. 'I love you, too.'

He met her lips with his in a kiss much needed and long overdue. His tongue swept over her mouth and she opened wide, allowing him inside…and into her heart.

Too soon, he broke the kiss and reached over, pulling open a drawer in the table at the end of the couch. 'I left your Christmas party with this still in my jacket. I didn't think I'd get the chance to give it to you.' He opened his hand and revealed a bangle bracelet with tiny diamonds embedded in gold.

She sucked in a startled breath. 'It's beautiful,' she murmured as he snapped it on her wrist.

'I stared at it for many lonely nights, imagining what it would look like on your wrist.' He tilted his head and met her gaze. 'Merry Christmas, Rina.'

'Merry Christmas, Colin.' Her eyes misted as she glanced at his beautiful gift.

'What's wrong?'

'I didn't have anything nearly as special for you.'

She wrinkled her nose and Colin leaned forward to kiss the tiny lines she'd created. 'What'd you get me?'

'Stationery and an engraved pen, so you wouldn't forget to write me.'

She shrugged, looking so sorry, so lost, and so his, Colin didn't care if she'd given him a lump of coal. 'Look at it this way. I can use it to write you love notes-every morning for the rest of our lives.'

She raised an eyebrow. 'Is that a proposal?'

'You're damn right it is.' Once again, he reached over and into that drawer, bringing out the second part of her gift, the one he'd bought just yesterday, after co-signing the papers for the loan. 'Didn't you think that empty jewelry box was a message of some sort?' he asked.

Because he'd left the velvet ring box in her desk, wanting her to find it, wanting her to realize he had it in him to stick around forever.

'You gave me the box?' she asked, obviously surprised.

'Of course I did. Why? Is there another man you think would leave you a private note and personal gift?'