Page 137 of On The Edge

I feel like I’m floating on air. He’s trying. He’s proving. He’s . . . being Cross.

“Your silence says you’re caving.” Tessa laughs.

“My silence says who fucking wouldn’t?”

“Agreed. Any sensible woman would feel the same . . . but don’t you cave. Make the man earn those last two letters. Hell, if it were me, I’d make him earn the YOU and your whole damn name, but—”

“That’s crazy.”

“It is.”

“It’s hard enough as it is waiting this long when I knew my answer before I even walked out of his place and back into this new life.”

“Hmm,” she murmurs and I immediately pause.

“What? I know that sound. I know you’re holding back.”

“I love you, you know that, right?”

“Tess?”

“How are you going to do it? How are you going to live your life, chase your dreams, be the woman you’ve been striving to become and be his girlfriend?”

“Where is this coming from?” I ask as Cruz fends off an attack from Spencer Riggs.

“This is coming from a friend who wants you to have it all—the man, the job, the whole fucking dream—but not give more of you than he does of him. It’s just . . . I’m a little protective of you.”

“Thank you. I know you are. And . . . I don’t know, Tess. Have you ever wanted something so bad in your life—this job, this chance—and then when you get there it falls flat? This job is falling flat and not because I don’t love it but because the other half of me is missing. So yes, I want it all. I intend to try and figure it all out. And I plan on having my cake and eating it too. I’m just trying to figure out how.”

“Okay. I’m sorry for dampening the moment, but you’re my person and I just want to make sure you’re putting you first.”

“I know and I love you for it. I also love Cruz in a way I never knew imaginable. In a way that I see in my mom’s eyes when she looks at my dad. And that’s strange to me because never have I ever thought that would be possible. I just thought that was something from the past . . . not something that still happens nowadays. So I’m willing to do what it takes to have that kind of love and have what I need to be fulfilled too.”

“Okay. I’m glad. I just needed to get that out before I tell you that he’s winning me over with each and every step he’s taking.”

“Are you caving?” I tease.

“Who fucking wouldn’t?” she repeats and we both laugh.

But when the phone call ends and I watch the podium celebration, every bone in my body wishes I were on a flight to him.

And when the text comes across, I jump for my phone.

Cruz: That P2 was for you.

CHAPTER FIFTY-EIGHT

Maddix

“This is getting ridiculous and awesome and you are so freaking lucky.”

I look up from my seat at Heidi and narrow my eyes. “I’m not following.” I say the words but I’m already standing from behind my desk and making my way toward her. “What are you talking about?”

“Look out the window of the conference room,” she says drolly but her smile gives away that it’s something exciting.

I make it across the opposite side of the floor in seconds and then recoil in shock when I take in the extremely large banner that has been rolled down off the top of the building across from us.

There are four separate images. The first one is of Cruz standing in a field of dahlias holding a huge sign with the letter L above his head. The second is him standing on the rooftop of his complex—a place only I’d know since I’ve been there with him—holding the letter O above his head. The third image is him on a Jet Ski in the middle of the Mediterranean, standing on its seat, with the letter V held above his head. And the last one is him sitting in his Formula 1 car, helmet on, buckled in, holding a blank sign above his head—for what I can assume is an E to be earned later.