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“I love you, Alyssa.”
“I know,” she said, but her smile was sad because it didn’t make a difference if he loved her or not. “I love you, too. I shouldn’t. I should hate you for what you’ve put me though, but I just haven’t been able to manage it.”
He held her face between his palms and kissed her, slow and tender and filled with emotions that made her nervous. “Quit your job,” he said when he ended the kiss. “The one you haven’t started yet. Come back to Virginia with me. I have a condo close enough to D.C. You’ll find work there. Between D.C. and Virginia, there must be a million law firms where you could find a job.”
“But I’ve sold this place and already bought another one.”
“So sell that one, too. Come with me, sweetheart. Come live with me in Virginia.”
Her heart took a nosedive. “I can’t, Noah. I can’t live with you. Not like that.” She’d made mistakes when it came to Noah, and though she couldn’t help loving him, she had to draw the line somewhere. What remaining self-respect she’d managed to hang on to was a good place to start.
He frowned, but took hold of her hand. “Yes, you can.”
“No,” she said with a shake of her head. “I’m sorry, Noah. I won’t.”
“Then marry me.”
He had lost his ever-lovin’ mind. “Get serious.”
“I am serious,” he said, his voice filled with confidence. “I told you, I love you.”
“It was a rhetorical comment.” She still loved him, but nothing had changed. They still didn’t know each other. “Is that what you want? Is that why you really came all the way out here? To ask me to marry you?”
He took both of her hands in his. “I came here to convince you that I love you, that we belong together.”
“But you didn’t plan on proposing.”
He leaned in and kissed her. Hard. “I planned to use whatever means necessary to get you to give me . . . give us a chance.”
She didn’t know what to say to that.
“Look,” he said when she remained silent, “I know we didn’t have a relationship, not in the traditional sense.”
“No, we had some pretty amazing sex and an interestitwenty-four hours,” she said with a nervous laugh. “Not exactly the kind of foundation on which to build a lifetime together.”
“Why not?” he argued. “What about the last four months? All I’ve thought about is you. All I’ve wanted is you. Let me love you, Alyssa. Be mine. Be my wife.”
“You’d really marry me?”
“Hell, yes. Right now. We’ll rent a car and drive to Vegas.”
She was tempted. Very tempted. “What about your family ? They’ll be disappointed if you eloped with some girl they’ve never met.”
“If I love you, they’ll love you.”
She wouldn’t be calling a bookie to place a bet anytime soon.
“Marry me, Alyssa.”
She was cursed and she knew it. Preordained to fall helplessly, hopelessly in love with a man who set her on fire with just one look. Kerpow. That’s what her mom had said she’d felt the first time she’d looked at her future husband. Same with her Granny Belle. Who was she to think she was any different?
She looped her arms around his neck and kissed him soundly. It took him all of a nanosecond to have her toes curling and her panties damp. “I will marry you. But first you have to listen to what I have to say.”
He rested his forehead against hers. “I swear, sweetheart, I’ll never lie to you. Ever.”
“I know,” she told him, and meant it. “I was a little freaked out by the whole situation. I might have overreacted a little.”
“A lot,” he said, his tone teasing.
