“No,” I confessed.
“I told you I loved Erin once.”
“I remember.”
“I wouldn’t be with you if I had married her. It’s possible to fall in love again. To experience a deeper love.”
I nodded.
“Do you believe in second chances?” he asked.
“I believe we deserve a second shot at love,” I answered. “If we keep gazing at the past, we trip over and fall. We may not seeour future, or it may pass by, like a train zooming past. We keep on moving wherever life takes us.”
“Yet, you’ve never been in love.”
“What are you trying to say?”
“I’ve said it to you before, and I’ll say it again. I love you,” he proclaimed.
“Alistair—”
“Damn it, woman. I love you. Luke, take the next exit off the highway and stop the car,” Alistair ordered his driver.
A minute later, we stood at a parking lot outside Chicken Delight, a family diner in an industrial area only minutes from the airport. We were under a cheesy, faded billboard of a couple with two kids, a boy and a girl, grinning while holding up chicken drumsticks.
“Scotty, what are we doing?” I asked, folding my arms while kicking the dirt with my work shoes.
“Did you know that mutual attraction only occurs twenty percent of the time? Love even less often.”
“Alistair, I?—”
“Do you feel it? Do you feel that energy between us?” Alistair grabbed my hands, cupping them in his large, warm hands.
“Yes, I feel it, and it’s powerful, but saying you love someone is a serious vow.” I frowned, feeling as if I were about to jump off a cliff with him.
“Perhaps you’re too careful.” Alistair’s eyes bore into me.
“I’m protecting my heart.” I tapped my chest.
Alistair took my hand again. He shifted his stance and cleared his throat. “The second time I found love was with you. It’s a deeper and more mature love and doesn’t contain the recklessness of youth. It’s far from perfect, but it’s a genuine relationship. I love you with a felicity I can’t explain. I don’t have expectations or a false image of you because I don’t waste time thinking of qualities to make a relationship perfect.”
I gulped, my heart thumping rapidly. “No man has ever told me he loves me.”
“I love you, Vera. I love you. I hope you see me in the same light.”
“I need to digest all this. I mean, we’re at a parking lot off a highway, and this information is overwhelming.”
“Will you promise me one thing? Will you think of me while I’m away?” Alistair’s gorgeous eyes pleaded with mine.
I nodded and squeezed his hand. “Love isn’t a game, and I want to be true to you.”
“When I’m back, I want us to talk again. Will you do that for me?”
I nodded again, wiping a stray tear from my eye. The emotion was so strong, overloading my brain and body with a depth of feelings that swallowed me up like a tidal wave. When we arrived at the airport, Alistair pulled me into a loving embrace, allowing me to breathe in his familiar aftershave.
“I’ll call you when I’m in Hong Kong,” he promised, caressing my jawline and neck.
“I’ll miss you,” I murmured, placing my lips on his cheek, then his sensual mouth, which tasted minty fresh and felt invitingly warm.
