She came to a stand next to the Cheetah, looking on top of her world and so far out of his league that if he didn’t still have her nail indentations in his ass from that last time they’d been together, he might have believed he’d dreamed it all up.
In that damn workshop, she’d told him she loved him. And then she hadn’t really spoken to him since. Now they were in the “real” world, whatever the fuck that meant, so-
“Nice plane,” she said quietly, staring up at the Cheetah.
“Yeah.”
“Do you remember what I said to you on Stone Cay?”
“You said a lot of things. You said, for instance, that I have an ego.”
“I said ridiculous ego.”
“Right,” he said dryly. “Thank you for the clarification.”
“I also said that you’re big, bad, and so damn sexy that you make me melt.”
He stared at her profile. “No, you never said that. I most definitely would have remembered that.”
“Well, I thought it. I also thought that you make me smile. You make me laugh, too, and you make me think.” She turned her head and looked at him. “You make me feel whole, Brody, when I’ve never felt whole before. But that’s not what I was referring to.” Her baby blues softened with things that made his heart pick up speed. “I meant it when I said I love you.”
“You said it under extreme duress.”
“It doesn’t matter whether I said it while thinking we were going to die, or when you were buried deep inside me, or now, when we’re just standing here…I mean it.”
“You never said it when I was buried inside you.”
“Which I plan to rectify ASAP.” She let out a breath, suddenly looking touchingly nervous. “What I’m trying to say is that we are a unit. And that I do love you. So much. And…”
Jesus, there was an and? He didn’t think he could take an and.
“And like you once said to me, I can’t keep walking away from anyone and everyone who cares about me. I always thought I had to be alone to feel safe and secure, but that plan has a fatal flaw, one I never saw coming.”
“Which is?”
“Alone isn’t all it’s cracked up to be. Which means it’s time for a new plan, Brody.”
“And that is?” he barely managed when she paused.
“Staying.” She gnawed on her lower lip. “I thought maybe we could make this thing official. I don’t really know what your plans are regarding us and this whole unit thing, if you wanted us to date or something more…”
He found his voice. “Something more. Way more.”
“Me, too.” She nodded and still looking off center, swallowed hard. “More like…I do more.”
“Hang on.” He grabbed her. “Are you proposing?”
“Trying.” She gripped him tight. “Brody West, will you-”
“Yes.” He tugged her close. “Christ, yes.”
“I didn’t finish even asking you yet.”
“Yes to anything,” he vowed. “Everything. As long as it’s with you.”
Jill Shalvis
