“Oh, Kenna, the woman I love is far from perfect. A little aloof, sometimes distant, and she can stare right through you when she’s preoccupied with work. She’s also kind, sweet, andhas a fantastic, quirky sense of humor. She’s sensitive, vulnerable, a little fragile. She can have a short fuse, is a kleptomaniac, and a below average driver.”
“I’m not a below average driver,” she protested weakly and he smiled gently.
“Kenna, my darling, I love you.” The words flowed from his lips so naturally and so easily that it was hard not to believe them. “But there are some things we’ll simply never agree on.”
“I love you too,” she finally whispered and the smile that lit up his face could have rivalled the sun in its brilliance.
“Smith…” she began hesitantly. “About the baby.”
He stilled and reluctantly moved away from her, taking one of her hands as he sat down beside her on the couch.
“I wanted himsomuch. But when I lost him, I thought I lost you too. I just don’t want you to ever believe that I didn’t love him. Or I didn’t mourn him.” He wrapped his arms around her and held her close.
“Shh, Kenna. I know that,” he whispered. “I know you did. I’m sorry I made you feel like I doubted that.”
“I just found it so hard to allow myself to lean on you afterward,” she confessed, swiping a hand over her wet cheeks. “Because I thought that you would leave.”
“I knew what you thought,” he interrupted grimly. “I knew from the beginning. And you werewrong. But it was easier to go along with your misconceptions, because I knew you’d balk if I tried to convince you of the real reason behind my proposal. I just thought that I’d have plenty of time to ease you into the truth.”
“The truth?”
He sighed softly, and reached into his breast pocket again, where she knew her rings were.
He pulled out the engagement ring and clasped it between his thumb and ring finger and held it up in front of them.
“The truth is the night we first met, after we’d made suchperfect love and I left you asleep in your apartment, I went home, pulled out Nana Pat’s jewelry box and picked this ring out for you.”
She gasped in wonder and her eyes flew to his in disbelief, alight with equal amounts of hope and doubt.
“Marrying you was always the plan, Kenna. Inmymind, your pregnancy merely accelerated the timeline. In yours, it spelled the beginning of the end. Trust me when I say that if I’d knownthat, I would have made it very clear from the beginning—whether it panicked you or not—that I was in it for the long haul because I fucking adore you.”
A smile of wonderment lit up her face, sparking in her eyes before tugging at the corners of her mouth.
“Smith,” she breathed, her lips parting as she gazed up into his eyes.
“Kenna,” he whispered as his lips descended to hers in a hot, sweet kiss.
Her arms were around his neck in seconds and he tugged her into his lap, his hands slipping over the smooth, cool fabric of her dress to find the silky warm flesh beneath.
“I’m filthy,” he muttered, while pressing open-mouthed kisses in her neck. “I’m going to mess up this gorgeous dress.”
Kenny, shook her head, and dragged one of his capable hands up to the neckline of her dress.
“Not if we take it off, you won’t,” she said, and he made a choked, growling sound of eager agreement.
Kenny pushed herself up onto wobbly feet. She wasn’t wearing her cast today and had instead opted for ballet flats.
“What are you doing?” he asked in confusion and she smiled at him, wrinkling her nose mischievously.
“Lock the door,” she told him.
Smith turned away to do as Kenna had requested, his movements sluggish as he stumbled to the door to rotate the key in the lock. When he turned to face her again, his jaw dropped to the floor in the exact same instant that his cock saluted the ceiling.
She was naked stark but for a string of delicate, creamy pearls that were draped between her breasts. She was sitting on the large mahogany desk, her slender thighs primly crossed, and her hands braced behind her in a way that made her perky tits thrust up even higher.
Smith tried to swallow, but found his throat instantly parched.
“Jesus,” he murmured, the word a benediction.
