“Guess we will just have to keep trying for the little girls. What do you say? Will you spend the rest of your life with me making up for the decade we lost because I was young and dumb and—”
She shoved a finger over his lips. “And selfless and courageous and wonderful,” she finished for him. “Yes, you fool. Of course my answer is yes!”
He kissed her then, kissed her with so much love and heat that soon they were panting and aching and hurrying to join together. As before, what started as frenetic and hasty soon slowed to soft and savoring.
After they’d pulled apart, lying on crumpled sheets, she hesitantly mentioned, “I told my boss about you.” He stiffened beside her, and she realized her mistake. “No. Not all about you. Only that you were a good agent. That you helped me with Grafton. And that you might be looking for a job soon. There’s an opening in Interpol’s Paris office…”
She let the sentence dangle. Even though he’d said his future depended on her, she didn’t want to force him into anything.
“And Zhao Longwei would hire me? Just like that?”
“He says my vouching for you is all it’ll take. Well…” She bit her lip and grinned at him. “That, and you’ll have to learn French.”
“I already know French.”
“You do?”
“Sure. Voulez-vous coucher avec moi ce soir?”
She laughed. “Do you know any French besides what you learned from Lady Marmalade?”
He nuzzled her shoulder. “You will have to teach me.”
“Is that a yes? You’ll come with me to Paris?”
“From here on out, I promise to follow you anywhere. Besides, I like Paris. And this way…we’ll always have Paris.”
She hugged him close, loving the feel of his hard chest against her breasts, his crinkly man hair and his heat. Mr. Tall, Dark, and Delicious, she thought. Mr. Tall, Dark, and Mine.
“I like the way you say it,” she told him. “Bogart’s got nothing on you, babe.”
“So true,” he rumbled in that scratchy voice that would always remind her of all he’d suffered, all he’d sacrificed. Then, he caught her lips in a kiss that turned from sweet to hungry. When she felt him swell against her hip, she pulled back.
“Three times in one afternoon?”
“We have ten years to catch up on.”
“So true.” She parroted his words at the same time her stomach rumbled loudly.
He lifted an eyebrow. “Hungry?”
She made a face of regret. “I’m starving, but… Hey! Where are you going?”
He’d hopped out of bed and yanked on his jeans. She admired the hard curves of his naked ass before they disappeared under the denim. “Down to the kitchen.” He winked at her and lowered his voice to a seductive growl. “To get the chocolate syrup.”
Epilogue
Four months later…
“That man had a deep streak of lonely until you came along, mon ami.”
Rusty turned to Rock, who’d sidled up beside him. Then he looked across the expanse of BKI’s shop floor at his husband, who sipped a Goose Island IPA and laughed at something Becky said.
Yes, that’s correct. Husband. Rusty was still getting used to that word.
I have a husband! I have a husband!
