“I’m hoping Frieda will let me stay at the motel until I find a place,” I said. “Although she might not be too happy when I tell her I won’t be able to work only for her anymore.”
Raquel laughed. “No.”
“No, she won’t be happy?”
“No, you’re not going to live there.” She leaned forward to put her glass down on the coffee table, then took my free hand and looked directly into my eyes. “Frieda already got enough of you. It’s my turn to put you to work now.”
My heart tripled in size, genuine, absolute, pure, overwhelming joy spreading through me. “Is that so?”
“Yep.”
Without looking away from her, I set my glass down too, then grabbed her hips and hauled her into my lap. Smiling, I folded my fingers around her thighs. “Well, if you’re serious about this, I think we need to discuss the benefits of this job you’re offering. What are the perks I’ll be getting for working with you?”
She smiled and dipped her head closer to mine. “I can think of a few. Here, let me show you.”
Clasping her hands together at the back of my neck, she pulled me closer and sealed her lips over mine for a kiss that told me she was accepting it all. My heart, my presence in her town and in her house, and that the two of us might really get to build our future together after all.
Despite how hopeless things had seemed for a while there, Raquel hadn’t moved on or forgotten about me. She was still right here, willing to take me back, and to make me part of her life for good.
CHAPTER 46
RAQUEL
After everything that had happened today, my head was absolutely spinning, but right now, I didn’t care about family politics or even the future. I’d missed Theo with every fiber of my being, and for the first time in over a month, it was just him and me.
I straddled his lap and kissed him hard, needing him to know how much I’d been longing to feel his arms around me again and how terrified I’d been that I never would. He groaned into my mouth and kissed me back, one hand coming up to catch my face while the other banded around me, pulling me even closer to him.
“I love you,” I whispered into his mouth when it occurred to me that I hadn’t told him yet. “I love you, Theo Westwood.”
He stiffened against me, then let out an actual moan and gave me a bruising kiss before he pulled back to look into my eyes. “Say it again.”
“I love you.” I held the sides of his neck, my gaze fixed on his. “I’m so desperately, wildly in love with you that I didn’t even want to say it before because if I admitted it, I was afraid I wasn’t going to be able to let you go.”
“I love you too,” he said after just staring at me in absolute disbelief for a few long seconds. “Hopefully, you’ll never let me go because I have no intention of letting you go again. Never.”
He stroked his fingers across my back, dropped both hands to my ass, and abruptly stood. Surprised laughter tore out of me, but it faded when I realized he was carrying me to our bed. Ours. The first one we’d ever sleep on together that was meant for us to share for the night.
The suite Theo had gotten us was insane, with an expansive view of the city, a sunken lounge, a tub the size of a swimming pool in the bathroom, and a truly monstrously sized bed. I wasn’t sure why the honeymoon suite had such a big bed, considering that honeymooners probably never wanted quite that much space between them, but none of those things mattered to me right now.
The only thing that mattered was that this crazy, luxurious, way over the top hotel suite somehow seemed to signify the beginning of our lives together. Before, we’d either been at his place or mine. Those two things had always been separate, but not now.
Not tonight and hopefully never again.
As he laid me down on the bed, he looked at me like he’d had the same realization. Like he was suddenly feeling as protective and reverent of this moment as I was. When his mouth met mine again, his kisses had changed too, slower and gentler, but somehow more meaningful at the same time.
“I can’t believe you’re here,” he murmured against my mouth. “You came to Chicago for me.”
“I felt so crazy for doing it until I saw you,” I admitted quietly, opening my eyes to look into his. “Until you got here, I kept wondering if I made a mistake.”
“You didn’t.”
I smiled and pushed both of my hands into his hair. “I knew that the second you walked in, Theo. Life just wasn’t the same without you and none of the differences between us seem to matter when we’re together.”
“They really don’t.” He laid another kiss on my lips, then broke it to press his mouth to my eyelids, my temples, and the tip of my nose. “You’re the one. I’ve known that for a while, but you really are, Raquel. I genuinely don’t care about our differences. I think they might even be what makes us fit together so well.”
Tears filled my eyes, but I arched an eyebrow at him anyway. “Look at you, getting all deep and corny on me.”
“I’m not deep yet,” he teased, dragging his lips along the line of my jaw. “I will be soon, though.”
