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He hadn’t believed anything could frighten him more than the next day’s test results could, but his temptation to want more from Willow than any agreement or handshake type of marriage told him just how wrong he was.
* * *
For the second time that night, a sound pulled Willow from her sleep, this one from somewhere nearby. As she blinked against the harsh light of the lamp, she reached for the other pillow and the man who’d held her close as she’d drifted off to sleep. Her hand landed in the depression where Asher’s head had once rested.
She sat straight up in the bed, her upper body uncovered, bedsheet puddling around her hips. Asher stood across the room, fully dressed and balancing on one foot while stuffing his other in a boot.
Immediately, she reached for the sheet and tucked it under her armpits, though she wasn’t sure why she bothered when he’d already seen and sampled everything she could hide. Had he been trying to sneak out while she was sleeping like some guy after a one-night stand? Even if, technically, at least so far, this was a one-nighter?
“Heading out soon?”
Asher startled and then turned back to her. He appeared to note the sheet under her arms, and then his gaze darted to the side.
“Sorry.” He cleared his throat. “I didn’t want to wake you. It’s getting late, and I need to get home.”
Her gaze flicked to the clock, which read just after one in the morning. He was right. It was late, and, like her, he had a child waiting for him at home.
“Marlowe’s probably waiting up for you with Harper.”
“More like asleep on the couch in my suite, but, yeah, she’s waiting.”
After having little success getting his boot on while standing, Asher sat on the edge of the mattress, slipped on both and then stood again. He took several steps away from the bed and gestured back to it. “That, well, was...amazing.”
“Yeah.” She chewed the side of her lower lip. “It was.”
Her skin still tingled with the memory of his calloused fingers and soft lips discovering, adoring and memorizing her form. She still could recall with absolute clarity the perfection of his body, the scent and taste of him, his sheer masculinity. Her hand lifted, as of its own accord, to lips still sensitive and swollen from his kisses.
“Sorry about the five o’clock shadow. I should have shaved...before, but I wasn’t expecting to, well, you know.”
“No problem.”
Though he’d appeared nervous before, confident Asher returned then as he stepped toward the bed again. “I guess you’ll have to marry me now and make an honest man out of me.”
Willow’s pulse pounded in her chest. “I guess the only way you’ll know the answer to that would be for you to ask me again.”
It would be different this time, she told herself, as she tried to inconspicuously wipe her sweaty palms on the sheet. His lovemaking had been so tender. He’d touched her as if she was precious to him. She’d finally recognized the truth in her heart that she was falling in love with him, Colton or no. Had he realized that he felt the same way about her?
“Will you marry me, Willow Merrill? Will you take on this crazy, unpredictable world with me and our two girls? It doesn’t matter whether Harper is mine and Luna is yours, or the other way around. I just think we could make a great family together.”
Her gaze connected with his and held for seconds or minutes as she took in his sweet message. Then she held her breath, waiting for the words that mattered most. The three words that would make the difference between a business transaction and a lifetime commitment.
His gaze flitted to the window. “I mean, we’ve just proven how amazingly compatible we are, haven’t we?”
An anvil seemed to lower on her chest.
“Are you saying that because we’re good together in bed that we should just call in the minister and cut the wedding cake?”
He crossed his arms over his chest. “I’ve definitely heard worse reasons to get married. We already have two amazing daughters to raise. We love them both. Now we know that our private time will be comforting, as well.”
Willow pulled the sheet tighter over her chest and drew her knees closer to her body. She’d been unclothed for a few hours, but she suddenly felt naked.
“You’re still offering me the same marriage of convenience that’s no more romantic than mating one of your cows to a bull?”
“The cattle probably think it’s romantic.”
“That isn’t funny,” she spat.
His smile disappeared. “Come on, Willow. Don’t you get what I’m offering you? Security like you’ve never known. For you and Luna.”
