His brow shot up.“I think you ad-libbed some of those reasons.”
“But was I correct?”
A flash of perfectly white teeth told she was missing the most important reason of all.
She crossed her arms, staring at the man on the bed.“If you say it’s because you’ve loved me all this time, I won’t believe it.”Those first weeks at the faire hadn’t been love.It had been disdain in its most pure form.Everything she did annoyed him.And vice versa.Sure, they’d grown past that, but there was no point in lying about it now.
He shook his head.“I was going to say the reason I helped you was because you introduced something I’ve never seen before.”
It was like he’d taken a pair of scissors and cut the tension out of her body.Lilian hadn’t been expecting it.“You’d never seen a bookstore before?”
“Not at the faire.”He leaned in, smiling at her disbelief.“That’s what intrigued me.Just a little at first.And then you gave my mom that book, which was another thing I hadn’t seen coming.And you kept finding new ways to help your store… all of it caught me off guard.Including the moment you asked for my help.”
“Are you saying I’m… unpredictable?”No one had ever described her that way before.But then again, she’d never done anything like opening up a shop at the faire, either.
Hawk looked up at her, his dark hair falling into his eyes.The lines of his jaw were slack, bringing a softness to his face.With the mask off, she could make out the newly added lines of stress.Despite them, though, he looked happy.
“Lilian, you are one of a kind.”
She swooned against the power of his voice but managed to keep her feet firmly on the ground.After everything he’d said to her downstairs, she knew it wasn’t fair to test him again.But she needed to hear him say it.“What do you want from me, Hawk?”
He laughed.“That’s my line.”Standing, he stepped toward her.When she didn’t retreat, he took her hands and said, “I told you that after the faire I would tell everyone about us.That offer still stands, if you want it.I’ll go down there right now and tell that whole room everything I told you.”
“Please don’t.”She shook her head at the thought.Grand gestures like that were all well and good in books, but in real life, the idea was mortifying.“That was all very romantic, but I don’t know if it will have the same effect on a room of strangers.Plus, what are you going to say?That you’re leaving the faire to be my business partner?”
“That you’re my girlfriend.”
She held in a breath.“Is that what I am?”
“No.”He leaned down until their noses were mere centimeters apart.“Because that word doesn’t even begin to describe what you mean to me.What I want to be to you.Body and soul at the bookstore, in the faire.None of that matters as long as I’m withyou.”
“Oh.That sounds like I’m getting special treatment.Better watch out, or you might get an HR complaint.”
“You are getting special treatment.”His voice was a raspy, low growl that made her legs buckle.“Because you are amazing.And everyone down there would agree.You’d have to be special for me to fall in love with you.”
Her heart stopped.
He said it.He said the words, and… dammit,thatcaught her off guard.
“Hawk.”
“You don’t have to say it back.I’m going to dedicate every minute of my life to being worthy of you.”
He couldn’t be serious.Men didn’t say things like that in real life.
But he’d said helovedher.
And she…
Lilian shook her head.“I wanted to tell you something.In person.Without the music and the dancing.”And the touching to distract her.
“All right.”Hawk looked rapt in the conversation.As if he hadn’t confessed his feelings and she hadn't said the words back.
“Your mom invited Bodice and Brawn back to the faire next year.”
He nodded.“I know.”
“You didn’t ask her to do that, did you?”
