“What happened after that?”
Reaching for his beer, Dean lets out another sigh because this is the part he doesn’t want to tell me. Doesn’t think I’ll believe. “I went after her,” he confesses quietly. “She ran outside and I didn’t know… I didn’t want anything to happen to her so I followed her to make sure she was okay. I found her on the lower deck, hanging over the railing, crying and puking her guts out.” Taking a drink, he shakes his head. “She was mortified. Kept apologizing for what happened. She didn’t know what got into her. That she was in love with Dalton and she didn’t understand why she would do something like that.”
Maybe Gwen didn’t understand, but I do.
Paige.
Paige has always had a way of manipulating you into doing what she wants. Knows just what to say to make you moveexactly the way she wants you to. I can only guess at what her reasons were but I can imagine that if it had happened—if Dean had slept with Gwen that night, she would have told me. She would have disguised it as gossip, a story about my little sister’s wild night with the hot bartender at her bachelorette party, when what it really would have been is a tool and a weapon. A tool to push Gwen and me even further apart. A weapon to hurt us both.
“Nothing happened between your sister and me, Mills,” Dean tells me. “She passed out in one of the lounge chairs and I stayed with her because she was too embarrassed to go back inside and I didn’t feel right about leaving her alone. I swear?—”
“You came to Gwen’s wedding looking for me.”
It’s not a question and when I say it, Dean stares at me for a long moment before he nods.
“I keep leaving you, Mills, and every time…” Shaking his head, Dean sets his beer down before scrubbing a rough hand over his face. Dropping it, he forces himself to look at me. “Women like Paige are something I never run out of. They’re always there. Always… I followed you to your room that night because you were different. You made mefeeldifferent.” Cocking his head a little, he gives me a sardonic smirk. “But then Paige shows up and starts talking about yourboring banker boyfriendand I realized you weren’t any different than the rest of them and you just wanted the same thing from me that the rest of them do.”
“Allister wasn’t my boyfriend,” I tell him. I can’t deny the rest. I can’t deny that I wanted him. “We’d only been on a few dates. He hadn’t even kissed me yet.”
“I know that now, but then…” Dean’s jaw clenches and he looks away. “I let my own insecurities convince me that you were just looking for a good time that night, but after what happened with your sister, I thought maybe I got it wrong,” he says. “Maybe I misunderstood what I heard. I was going to ask you about it in the morning but when I finally made it back into the house you were gone. I thought about it—you—but I didn’t know what to actuallydoabout it until Paige called me and asked if I wanted to be her date for your sister’s wedding. I said yes because I knew you’d be there. I thought maybe I could talk to you. Explain what happened and hope you’d listen but?—”
“I was with Allister.”
“Yeah. According to Paige the two of you werepractically engaged.” Dean gives me a dry chuckle even though it’s obvious he doesn’t find much humor in it. “It was obvious that I was the last person you wanted to talk to, but I couldn’t walk away. I didn’twantto walk away so I kept answering the phone when she called. I kept saying yes when she…”He rolls his lips between his teeth and shakes his head before he looks at me. “I know how pathetic it sounds, but I was never with her, Mills. In my head, I was always with you.”
That the only reason I said yes to Paige was because being her fucktoy was the only way I had access to you. That when I fucked her, I called her by your name. That I couldn’t get hard for her—fuck, I can’t get hard for anyone—unless I’m thinking about you.
“There’s a long list of things I think about you, Dean Mercer, butpatheticisn’t on it.” Giving him a long look, I gesture toward the pocket he shoved his watch into. “Why are you upset that I took your watch in to have the back plate replaced?” I ask. “It was engraved with my almost wedding date. Why would you?—”
“Because it’s not the day you almost married someone else, Mills.” Dean shakes his head. “Not to me. It’s the day I watched you finally stand up for yourself. The day you looked up at me and asked me to run with you and no matter whathappened afterward, no matter what you thought or how you feel about me now, that was the best fucking day of my life.”
Swallowing hard, I pull my bottom lip between my teeth on a nod. “Is that your bedroom,” I ask, lifting a hand to point at the closed door on the other side of the room.
“Yup.” Leaning his hips against the counter, Dean crosses his tattooed arms over his thick, muscular chest before giving me one of those toe curling looks. “That’s where the magic happens.”
Making a noise in the back of my throat, I drop my hand before making my way to it. Opening the door I see his bed—the same bed I saw months ago when he Facetimed me. Kicking off my shoes, I climb onto it and sit in the middle of it, just as Dean appears in the bedroom doorway.“What?—”
“Truth Island.”
When I say it, Dean frowns because he thinks this time is just like every other time. That I don’t believe him. That I’m demanding proof I won’t accept. “Mills…”
“Not for you,” I tell him. “For me.” Quirking my mouth to the side, I give him a nod. “It’s about time I started telling you the truth, don’t you think?”
“Okay.” Giving me a faint, lopsided grin, Dean bobs his head. “What do you want to tell me, Mills?”
“That I believe you. I believe you when you say that nothing happened between you and Gwen that night and I believe that the reason you followed her is because, despite your best efforts, Dean Mercer, youreally area gentleman.” Swallowing hard against the lump forming in my throat, I offer him a watery laugh. “I believe that you love me. I believe I love you too. I’ve loved you from the moment I met you. You were irritating and smug and so conceited I wanted to scream but when I opened that door and you were on the other side of it, I was ready to risk it all for you because you were right—youarea problem for me, just as much as I’m a problem for you. I believe that makes us both absolutely insane because I’d rather fight with you for the rest of my life than fuck anyone else.”
When I say it, he makes that sound in the back of his throat. “No one else is fucking you, Mills—not ever,” he says, making his way toward me. “No more boring bankers. No more nice guys with the right last name and too much money.” Climbing onto the bed with me, Dean pushes me back, onto the mattress, until his hips are pressed into the cradle of my thighs and I’m staring up at his beautiful face hovering over mine. “No one but me.”Looking down at me, his expression caught somewhere between disbelief and hope, Dean nods his head. “So… I love you.”
“Yes,” I whisper up at him. “You love me.”
Still nodding, a slow smile spreads across his face. “And you love me too.”
“Despitemybest efforts… yes, I love you.” Grinning, ear to ear, I feel my heart swell and knock against my chest. Lifting a hand, I trace my fingertips along the curve of his jaw. “Still want to kiss me, Dean?”
“I’ll always want to kiss you, Miracle,” he promises me, right before he does.
EPILOGUE
