Instead of taking the ring, Kade bent to wrap his hands around my sides and pull me back up to my feet.
“Nat, you don’t need to propose.” His eyes were brimming with warmth. “It means more to me than you could ever know, but we don’t have to get married.”
I swallowed hard, fighting a surge of disappointment so strong, tears pricked my eyes. “But I want us to be together. You have no idea how much I’ve missed you.”
He took the ring from my hand, staring down at it for a moment. Then his gaze met mine. “I trust you, Nat. For me to trust people is hard. All but impossible. Only somehow you make it easy.”
“Does that mean…?” My voice trailed off. What exactly was he saying? It sounded good, but I didn’t want to jump to conclusions. This felt like the most important Cryptic Crossword clue I’d ever unravelled, and the last thing I wanted was to get it wrong.
“We probably shouldn’t jump into trying to plan a wedding when you’re starting a new job and don’t need the pressure. Besides, why rush to the engagement part, when there’s a whole lot of dating we could enjoy first?” He cocked his head to the side, considering the ring he was still holding. “Although the ring did look good on you. And you can call me a caveman, but I like that it’ll tell other men you’re taken.”
I blinked, silently running his words back, trying to check if he was actually saying what I hoped.
He took hold of my trembling hand and started to slide the ring onto my finger. But it didn’t get far before he stopped, his lips lifting into a real smile. “Natalie Williamson, will you help me confuse the hell out of Billy and the rest of the world by agreeing to become my very real girlfriend who wears my ring in the expectation that one day soon I’ll sweep you off your feet with a romantic proposal to go with it?”
I spluttered a laugh made watery because of the tears I was still fighting to contain. A wave of relief made my legs weaken.
“Yes, please.”
He slid the ring all the way onto my finger, then drew me against him. His lips found mine, and as I kissed him, I realized I could taste the salt tang of tears. My eyes had given up the battle to hold them back, and they’d burst free like determined soldiers springing from the trenches.
Kade must have tasted them too, because he drew back with his brow creased. His expression was worried, his hands on my arms as gentle as if I were made of tissue paper. “Nat, what’s wrong? Are you okay?”
“Yes.” I nodded hard, wiping my eyes with the heel of one hand. “Despite how it looks, I’m very okay.”
“Then I’m going to assume they’re happy tears.” His lips quirked. “Unless you’re crying because I have bad breath and you’re too polite to tell me.”
My laugh was even more watery than before, and I sniffed, wishing I had something to blow my nose with. “I’ve spent the last two weeks trying to talk myself into believing I could live without you. I’m just so happy I don’t need to keep telling myself lies, because I’m not very good at it.” I took a shuddering breath, trying to pull myself together. “You know, I don’t really need to go to Chicago. I could get a job here—”
“No!” He took a breath, then softened his tone. “I don’t want you to give up anything for me. We’ll spend weekends together instead. I’ll fly there, or you can fly back here. Either way, we’ll make it work.” Putting gentle hands on the sides of my face, he dropped his forehead softly against mine. “I need you Nat. And if there’s one thing I’ve learned, it’s that going for too long without seeing you isn’t something I enjoy.”
“Me too,” I said wholeheartedly. “You’d better count on seeing a lot of me.”
Heat sparked in his eyes, and his lids lowered. His dimples appeared as he pulled me close. “I’m counting on seeing all of you. And I intend for it to happen often.”
When he kissed me, the warmth and joy that spread through me made me feel like I was floating several inches above the ground.
Or maybe he really did lift me off my feet.
With Kade, anything was possible.
Chapter Thirty
Kade
Natalie was perfect.
She yawned and stretched lazily before snuggling back into my side, and I watched her move with a sense of happiness so profound, it settled deep into my bones.
Maybe I’d thought my love for her couldn’t get any stronger, but every minute we were together was proving me wrong. And the best part was feeling certain of her, knowing I could trust her love. Even if we argued, if there were bad days, or something went wrong, I believed in her.
I believed in us.
Maybe it wouldn’t always be easy, and perhaps sometimes I wouldn’t be able to stop doubts from creeping in. But I trusted she’d always be there for me, and that she’d be able to talk sense into me if I started thinking anything different.
“What are you thinking about?” she asked sleepily.
I kissed her forehead, stroking her back. The sheets were scrunched underneath us, and it was warm enough that neither of us had bothered to extract them. Besides, I liked that she was uncovered with nothing to obstruct my hands or eyes.
“I was thinking how much I love you.” I rubbed her skin from her back to her naked ass and a previously exhausted part of me hardened in response. But then, we’d only made love six times so far since yesterday when I surprised her at the café, and only once in the last hour, so it was clearly time for more.
“You love me for my mind, right?” she teased, stroking her fingers down my stomach and encountering a
