That proposal, the one she’d turned down and then kicked herself for weeks later because she’d turned it down. Even her mother had given her the side eye when she’d told her what had happened. Tamika had been more than angry with herself but still prideful about taking a stand until later that night when her mother had come into her room and sat on the edge of her bed. “Always follow your heart, MiMi, because your brain thinks it knows too much.”
Those words had replayed in Tamika’s mind for weeks after that.
“I got a job,” she blurted out when it seemed they’d been silent too long. “At an international insurance company. I’ll be supervising their arson investigation unit.”
“That’s wonderful,” Roark said. “Is that what this is? A goodbye dinner? When do you leave?” He’d stopped walking now, just as they came under a gray stone bridge. A few feet behind him there was a stone wall and below that was the creek, the sound of the rustling water soothing.
She cleared her throat and looked up at him. “I’m not leaving. The company’s main office is in London.”
For a moment, Roark appeared to be speechless and then he looked hopeful. Then his features returned to the stoic and brooding guy she remembered from that first day in the dining room at the manor. “What does that mean?”
“Now, who’s being blunt?” she joked, again recalling one of their early conversations.
“I just want to know whether or not I can release this breath I’ve been holding since walking into that cottage.” He gave her a half smile, and it was the sexiest half smile she’d ever seen.
“I’m in love with you, Roark. And if you’re not going to say you’re still in love with me too, then you can just hold that breath all the way back to your car and drive away from here.” There, she’d said it. Sort of.
That wasn’t the way she’d rehearsed asking him to take her back. Then again, she wasn’t totally sure they’d ever really been together, so she probably didn’t need to ask anyway. And she was stalling again instead of getting on with the very important conversation.
“I didn’t want you to put me up in a flat, as you call it. If I need a place to live, I’ll pay my own rent. At least until we decide to move in together. Then, I’m more than happy to allow you to pay the bulk of the bills. And I didn’t want to feel as if you were arranging my life, making decisions only I should make for myself.” She paused and took a deep breath. “But I realized none of that stopped me from loving you. Actually, it was the fact that I knew you were a caring and compassionate provider for everyone you loved that made me fall for you in the first place. I know it’s in your nature to take care of people, but it’s in my nature to stand on my own.”
He stepped toward her then, touching a finger to her lips. “Be quiet,” he said and gave her that smile again. “Whatever you want, I’ll do. However this arrangement plays out in your mind, I’m okay with it. Just so long as you’re happy and in my arms.”
She tilted her head and made a sound that resembled “awwww.” “So we’re doing this?” Her words were mumbled over his finger.
Roark chuckled and eased his hand to her cheek. “We’re doing this because I can’t stop loving you, Tamika Rayder.”
She eased her arms around his waist and pulled him closer. “That works for me, because I can’t stop loving you either, Roark Donovan.”
