unbending, rigid organ for the rest of my days.”
“Oh,” she exclaimed, her bones dissolving at the words she’d waited so long to hear. Suddenly weak, she dropped her forehead to his chest, her eyes filling with joyous, scalding tears.
“Trisha,” he whispered, his own eyes misting as he watched her. He lifted her face. “Please, don’t cry. Anything but that. Throw something at me, smother me with your pillow, just don’t cry.”
The sob escaped her before she could control it, and his face twisted in a grimace. For the first time, he reached for her with both hands, then swore when he remembered the cuffs. “I’m too late, then,” he said flatly, mistaking her tears, his face pale as the white sheet beneath him. “I’m so sorry I hurt you, I -”
Startled out of her joy, she stared at him. “You think I -” Gulping, she sat up next to him and swiped at her wet cheeks with the back of her hand. Then she laughed. “You love me.” She laughed again. “You silly man.
Reaching up, his thumb carefully wiped at a lingering tear. “Does it always make you cry when someone says that?”
“This is the first time I’ve ever heard it,” she said, smiling from ear to ear. “And I’m not crying because I’m sad or hurt. These are happy tears.” Unable to contain her pleasure and joy, she surged off the bed, dancing back a step when he reached for her.
“Come here,” he demanded, smiling helplessly when she giggled and shook her head. “What are you doing – oh, my God.”
She’d whipped off her top. The love swelling her heart made her giddy, intoxicated. With a wicked smile, she palmed the key from the dresser, slipped out of her shoes, then her skirt, laughing a little breathlessly when he murmured another heartfelt oath at his inability to reach her. “Your own fault,” she whispered as she slid off her stockings and underwear. She lay down on the bed, snuggling close when he wrapped his arm around her.
He yelped when she pressed her cold feet to his, then moaned when her quickly warming body slid against him.
“I’m so glad,” she whispered, kissing his throat.
He rubbed his cheek to hers. “That I love you?”
“That you’re just stubborn, not completely out of control. I’d hate to think you’d compromise yourself this way for just a date.”
She reached up to free his hand, then squeaked in surprise when his hand came free of its own accord. “What -”
“I never clicked them closed.” He grinned, a light, carefree grin she’d never seen before. “I wasn’t sure you’d have mercy on me.”
“You weren’t crying for mercy last time,” she reminded him, gasping when a hand slid down her spine, cupped her bottom. His fingers stayed, dallied until she gasped his name. Slowly, those fingers slid back up.
“Mercy,” he whispered. “God, I love you.”
She sighed as both his strong arms came around her. “I love you back, Hunter.”
“I was counting on that,” he said, the nerves back in his velvety voice. He looked at her, his usual composure and confidence gone. “Trisha.”
Smiling, she lifted a shoulder. “What?”
“It took me a while to figure this all out, but as stubborn as I am, it’s for keeps.”
“What – what is?”
Lifting the fist he’d just freed, he turned it over, showing her his palm.
In its big center sat a huge diamond ring.
“When I look at you, I see my future,” he said softly. He kissed her long and tenderly. “When I touch you, I know peace, the first I’ve had in a long time, if ever. You make me whole, Trisha.”
“You do the same for me,” she managed, her gaze glued to the most beautiful ring she’d ever seen.
“Then will you marry me, and make me whole for the rest of our lives?”
“Oh, my.”
He smiled and took her hand. “I sure hope that’s a prelude to yes, because I don’t think I’ll make it without you.”
Her eyes filled and ran over as she stared at him dreamily, picturing their children running around the house, all replicas of their daddy, with his expressive green eyes, his capacity to love, his understanding.
“You have to say yes,” he said a little urgently, clearly taking her silence for hesitation. “Who else will help me turn this duplex into the home it was meant to be?”
“I’ll marry you,” she said with a laugh. “Because I love you with everything I have. But as far as turning this house into a home…” She took a breath and plunged. “I might have given you just a little head start on that one. You see, I had this
His bark of laughter drowned out her next words.
Author Biography
Jill Shalvis is the award-winning, bestselling author of over a dozen romance novels. She’s been making up stories to keep herself out of trouble since the day she learned to talk, and is very thankful to get paid for doing what comes naturally. When pressed for an answer on why she writes romance, Jill Shalvis just smiles and says she didn’t realize there was anything else. She lives in California in a house filled with young children, too many animals and her hero/husband.
