“Stay?”
“Yes.” His frustration made the word come out clipped.
“I need to go home.”
“It’s not safe. You’re staying here.”
Her brow went up and he knew he’d made a mistake. “I know you’re not making decisions for me, because I’m perfectly capable of doing that for myself. I’ve been on my own since I was seventeen and I’ve gotten by just fine.”
He held back his desperate need to make her stay and shot from his heart. “I want you to stay. Please.”
Her gaze softened on him. “Don’t you think this is a little fast? Shouldn’t we date first?”
“No. I like the way things are now. I thought you did, too.”
She opened her mouth to say something, then closed it.
“You want to be with me, right?”
“Yes. It’s just…this is too important to screw up.”
“Is that what you’re afraid of?”
Her eyes pleaded with him to understand. “Losing you? Yes.”
He shook his head. “Never going to happen.”
“Look at my life. It’s a mess. I don’t want it touching you anymore than it has. For all I know, Desiree could be plotting to take you out, just to make me suffer. And I would, because you’re—” she choked up, “—everything good I ever wanted. If something happened to you…” She trailed off, tears in her eyes at the thought. “I wouldn’t survive.”
He cupped her cheek in his palm. “First, Desiree isn’t coming after me. I’m too hard a target. She will not win that. Second, do you really think I’d let you go back to your place alone? Unprotected? Not a chance.”
“I know she’s coming. But it’s not going to be easy for her to hurt me anymore. I’ll be prepared.”
“You can’t even guess how she’s going to come at you. It’s better that we stick together. You want to stick it to her, show her how happy we are together. Let her see that there’s no way she’ll ever break us apart.”
“You seriously want me to stay. Here. With you. Like move in?”
“This place is bigger than yours. We’ll need room if you want to have kids. I do. I hope you do, too.” There. He’d laid it all out there.
Her fork fell from her fingers and clanked on the bowl before tumbling onto the table, smearing cheese on the wood. Her shocked gaze never left his. “Hawk.”
“Yes?”
“Are you serious? Like really serious?”
He sat back and smiled at her. “One hundred percent.”
“Don’t you think it’s too soon?”
He leaned in to her. “Don’t you think it’s been a long time coming? I love you. You love me. I want to be with you all the time. I drove up to the house tonight, saw the lights on, knew youwere home, and I was just so damn happy to see you. I want that every day.”
“But we just started dating.”
“Is that what we’re doing? Because I thought it was more than that. I thought we were sharing our lives, working toward something much more permanent.”
“Like babies.”
His smile was back. He hadn’t smiled this much in forever. “As many as you want.”
