“Love me?”
“So damn much,” she said, half laughing, half sobbing as she flung her arms around me, holding on with a vise-like grip.
My stomach heaved at the emotions constricting me. It seems as if I’d waited forever for her to admit that she loved me. My heart expanded with happiness and a love I never believed possible—or thought would ever be mine.
Ray eased back a little. “I was going to tell you the morning after we came back from New York that I was madly in love with you. It’s why I came looking for you, but—”
“But Curtis ruined everything.”
She nodded. “Then you left on a work trip…”
I pressed my mouth to hers in a tender kiss. Seeing her dimpled smile again, I knew this was what I wanted to wake up to every morning. She completed me, was the part that had been missing for so long. Hell, I hadn’t been looking for love, didn’t even believe it existed, but it had been right in front of me all the time, just like she’d said.
“Last question. The most important I imagine I’ll ever ask in my lifetime…” I skimmed her face with the backs of my fingers. “No need to answer now. All I want is a simple yes or no when I next see you…because I want forever with you.”
Her striking hazel eyes widened in shock. It was quite something to see her at a loss for words. At the thought of how close I’d come to losing her, I had to grit my teeth and haul in my anger. There would be a reckoning.
Oh, yes, there would be.
24
Ray
Jack hailed a cab,and we headed to Max and Ila’s loft in SoMa. He’d explained it was better that I continued the ruse that we’d broken up and stay with Max and Ila. I didn’t want that, I just wanted to climb into him and stay there until I could breathe easily again, knowing we were all right. Because a few hours of separation had scraped a layer off my heart that needed to heal.
Now seated next to me in the back of the cab, Jack remained quiet. The passing streetlights underscored the tense set to his jaw, so I rested my head against his shoulder.
I hated myself for hurting him even a little, while he’d never faltered in his feelings for me.
He slipped his arm around me and pressed his lips to my head. “It’s going to be okay, I promise. I won’t let anything happen. This will be the last time she dares to try and sabotage you or your family.”
I’d never seen Jack this hard. Or formidable. His ice-gray eyes glittered eerily inside the gloomy car. But I didn’t want to think or talk about Margo Blackstone.
Jack hadn’t told me anything, but he probably had a plan to deal with his relative. I trusted him. I should have from the start. That regret would linger for a long time.
A while later, we buzzed the loft, and Max let us in. As we took the stairs, a thought occurred. I grabbed Jack’s arm, stopping him on the landing. “Jack, she hired someone to dig up stuff about me. What if she has him watching me—us? I mean, she found me at Moretti’s easily enough, and it’s not a place I go to often.”
His mouth tightened. “No, she thinks she’s already found your weakness. She wouldn’t care now. But knowing the way she’s likely to operate, I’m sure she’d have Pops’ place watched. It’s better I don’t visit you here.”
I bunched his shirt, not wanting to let him go. “You’re not coming. At all?”
“Much as I hate being apart from you, I think it’s better for now. I don’t want to alert Margo that her damn scheme didn’t work. This week is all I need to sort things out.”
And like a watering can, my eyes filled again. “Don’t cry, Ray, we will be together.” He kissed me gently at first, then it became frantic. His fingers threaded through my hair, holding me in position as his mouth devoured mine. I clutched the back of his shirt, pressing my body into his—
“I should have known when you could never leave her alone,” Max’s drawl came from afar.
Blinking, I pulled free, and Jack cursed. Max watched us from the doorway, one eyebrow arched. “You both okay now?”
“Yeah,” Jack said, tone hardening.
“Good.”
I didn’t get how guys could speak with so few words.
“Max,” I said quickly, “please don’t tell Ila anything about this evening. I don’t want to upset her. I’ll talk to her later.”
He gave a terse nod, then asked, “You’re staying over, right?”
