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My heart tripped as I asked, “What exactly does that mean?”
He took my hands and met my gaze. “It means how in the hell could you not know that I love you, too? I think I probably have for a long time, but I was too damn stupid to recognize it right away. The things I said in the beginning weren’t me, Butterfly. I was still a shell of a man who was trying to cope with losing his twin brother and his father so close together. But it’s no excuse. If you give me the opportunity, I’ll make it up to you for the rest of our lives.” He reached out and snatched the box from the coffee table where I’d dropped it to pick up my ice cream. “Which brings me to this.”
He held out the box, and I took it with shaky fingers. I popped the lid and found myself staring at the most gorgeous diamond I’d ever seen. “Oh, my God. Eli? What is this?”
“You know what it is,” he rasped. “Just put me out of my misery. Is it going to be a yes or a no?”
My heart was soaring as I threw myself into his arms. “Yes. Yes. God, I love you so much.”
Eli’s arms tightened around me immediately. “I love you, too, Butterfly. You fucking broke my heart today when you ran out of the office.”
“Why didn’t you say something sooner?”
He picked me up and flopped onto the couch with me. Eli held me like he was never going to let me go, and it made me cry even harder.
“I tried to tell you that I hadn’t called you because I’d been too ill to talk, and those texts had been the mindless ramblings of a man who was trying to tell you how much you meant to me, but I failed because I couldn’t form any coherent thoughts while I had a high fever. You didn’t seem to want me to talk about anything personal. At that point, I was already terrified that I’d lost you. I was willing to settle for having you as my intern for a while if it meant I’d get to see you every day.”
The text message really had been a mistake.
I threaded my hand into his hair because I had to touch him. “I was there because I wanted to be. You must have known I came to be an intern because of you.”
“I wasn’t quite sure what your motives were,” he admitted. “But I was so damn happy to see you that I didn’t want to scare you away. And then I ended up doing it anyway.”
“I couldn’t quite let you go, even after your text messages,” I admitted. “I had to make sure that we were never going to work, and that you really wanted me to go.”
He squeezed tightly. “I never wanted you to go anywhere. I always wanted you to stay, Jade. I guess I just didn’t know how to change things. I think I was fucked from the first time you walked into my office and told me off.”
“I thought you just wanted to fuck me,” I teased.
“Oh, I did,” he rumbled. “Still do. But I was a fool to think that I could just fuck you out of my system. There’s never going to be a day when my dick doesn’t get hard the second you walk into a room.”
“You say the sweetest things,” I said with a laugh.
“I’m not exactly good at saying sweet things,” he answered with a frown.
I thought about all the nice things he’d done for me in the past, and the fact that he’d outright deeded the land that he couldn’t previously let go of to me.
His actions said everything. “I was joking, Eli. The things you do matter.”
“Then tell me what the hell to do to make you happy, because it’s become a goddamn obsession for me.”
“You already did it,” I said. “But if you really want to make me happy, then take me to bed.”
CHAPTER 29
JADE
Eli didn’t waste any time. He got up and pulled me up with him.
“The ring first,” he insisted as he took the box from my hand. “I need to know that you’re going to be mine.”
He pulled the ring out and dropped the box on the coffee table.
I started to sob as he put the gorgeous ring on my finger.
“Don’t cry, Butterfly,” he said huskily as he picked me up and carried me into my bedroom. “If I had my way, you’d never fucking cry again.”
“I’m happy,” I said. “They’re happy tears this time.”
“I can think of a lot better things we can do to be happy,” he growled as he lowered me to my feet beside the bed.
“Then show me,” I requested.
My body was already on fire, and he’d barely touched me. I was still having a hard time believing that Eli was really going to be mine.
He reached for the bottom of his sweater and pulled it over his head. “You own me, Jade. You know that, right?” he asked in a deep, sincere tone of voice.
I shuddered as I grabbed the sweater and tossed it on the floor. Eli was intentionally letting himself be vulnerable to me, and I’d never, ever betray that kind of trust.
I pulled the sweatshirt over my head and tossed that away, too, leaving me bare from the waist up.
“You own me, too, Eli,” I told him.
Because the emotion between us was so intense, there was some kind of crazy primal need we both had to belong to each other. I could feel it thick in the air around us.
All I really wanted to do was surrender to it.
I wasn’t afraid to give myself to Eli, any more than he minded letting me make him mine.
He snaked an arm around my waist and tugged me in until our upper bodies met skin-to-skin.
And it was bliss.
“You were always meant to be mine,” he rasped before his head came down to capture my mouth.
I opened for him, and I wrapped my arms around his neck. I was greedy for the taste of him, every single bit of longing I’d harbored for weeks pouring from my lips to his.
I touched every inch of bare skin I could find, and then searched for more, my fingers exploring, trying desperately to bring Eli as close to me as I could possibly get him.
“Fuck!” he cursed when he’d lifted his hungry mouth from mine. “I need you, Jade.”
I needed him, too, and he didn’t resist when my fingers fumbled with the buttons of his jeans. They were tight because he was enormous and totally erect, but I managed to finally get them undone.
I dropped to my knees and practically clawed at the material to get it down his muscular legs, taking his boxer briefs with the jeans.
He kicked them aside as I palmed his enormous cock. I shivered as my fingers moved over what felt like silk over steel, and I bent forward to let my tongue taste the tiny bead of moisture on the tip.
I didn’t get another taste because Eli hauled me to my feet.
The expression on his face was fierce as he said, “You have no idea how much I’d love to have those beautiful lips wrapped around me right now, but there’s other things I want more.”
“Like what?” I asked breathlessly.
“You,” he grunted.
He reached for my shorts and tugged them down my legs until they were bunched at my ankles so I could kick them off.
His eyes roamed over me possessively as he said, “I’ve never seen anything as beautiful as you.”
I shivered as his hands cupped my breasts, his thumbs tracing over my hard nipples. He squeezed them for a moment and then let go, and the painful pleasure made my core clench with a need so savage that it was overwhelming.
