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Her pupils dilate as her gaze meets mine. “I care about you, too, Lark. So much.” Another bite at her lower lip, again. “Which is why, I can’t ask you to give up your business for me. You love this. You started this company; you’re the reason it’s gotten to where it is today. I can’t imagine you would have the customers you do without your support. Sheryl’s just grasping at straws trying to hang on to her share. It’s obvious to anyone on my end of the investments that she doesn’t really care. Not the way you do.”
My heart leaps at that. Not just at her saying that I’m the heart of this company—which, to be honest, I already knew. But she said she cares about me. The same way I care about her. “If losing the company is the only way I can really be with you, Cassidy, then I don’t care. I can start another company. Build up from scratch again. I don’t care. But I can’t build another you.”
Her cheeks flush bright red. Still, she shakes her head. “I can’t let you do that. Not for me.” She leans in to brush her lips against my cheek, so lightly that it sets me on fire. I want to grab her, toss her down on this couch, and…
I reign myself in with difficulty. The harder point is disguising the way my cock is stiffening against the seam of my jeans, impossible to control. “I want to,” I tell her, firmly.
She shakes her head. “I don’t care if some piece of paper says you’re married, Lark. I know your heart belongs to me. Just like mine belongs to you. That’s what really matters. Not the law. So if you want to keep your business, just stay married to Sheryl, I don’t mind. Really.”
Your heart belongs to me. Her words thunder through my body, like an electric current. I’ve never felt this awake and alive. Or this sure of what I needed to do.
I reach out to wrap my hands around her shoulders, drawing her back in close to me. “Cassidy… I don’t care about the business. What really matters is what’s right here in front of me. You.”
“What are you saying?” Her eyes widen ever so slightly. Between that and her flushed cheeks, her trembling lower lip, it’s almost impossible to keep my hands off of her.
But I manage, for now. Because there’s something left I need to confess. One last thing I need to tell her. “I love you, Cassidy.”
Her breath catches audibly. I know the feeling. I’m holding my breath too, waiting for her reply. Wishing that it will be what I want. Bracing myself, in case it’s not. After what feels like the longest pause in the world, though, Cassidy leans forward, until her forehead is resting against mine. “I love you, Lark,” she breathes.
And there we have it.
I bend forward to cover her mouth with mine, catching her in a slow, deep kiss. The rest of the world fades out.
31
Cassidy
One moment Lark’s lips are on mine, covering mine. The next thing I know, one of his arms is around my waist and the other is sliding behind my knees. He scoops me up off the couch like I weigh nothing at all—a move that, I have to admit, is seriously hot. I wrap both arms around his neck and kiss my way down his jawline to the spot where his neck meets just below his ear. I bite him there, lightly, and my reward is a low growl in the back of his throat.
“I’ve waited far too long to have you back in my bed,” he says, and the words send a thrum of desire through me, pulsing out from my stomach all the way to the tips of my toes where they curl in Lark’s borrowed socks.
But the words don’t turn me on nearly as much as what he said before this.
“I love you,” I whisper again, testing. Repeating. It’s the first time I’ve ever said those words to a man and truly meant it. It unlocks something new inside me, a depth of feeling I never knew existed before.
“I love you, Cassidy,” he replies, and I was wrong before. This is more emotion than I’ve ever felt at once, a torrent rushing through my whole body.
Because he feels the same way I do.
When we reach the bed, I expect him to toss me onto it. Instead, he lowers me gently, like I’m precious. Breakable. When my back hits the mattress he kisses me again, slow and forceful. Then he moves, his mouth trailing kisses down my jawline to my neck, my shoulder. He undoes my shirt with steady hands and peels it off, pausing only long enough for me to shift beneath him so he can unclasp my bra too.
