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“Okay.”
I huffed a breath. “Asher, you have to say something besidesokay.”
“Well…” He blinked and shook his head. “I mean, I don’tlovethat, but technically we were broken up.”
“True, but even so… I hate it. It was stupid. Just me trying—again—to turn around and go back to the life I had. But I can’t.” I glanced up at him. “Do you believe me when I say nothing happened?”
“Well…Yeah. Of course.”
“You do? I mean, it’s the truth. I don’t want to be with anyone else, and my drunken self knew to say it out loud when my sober self couldn’t.”
“Knew to say what out loud?” he asked. His eyes were so beautifully dark and rich.
“That I… Oh God, okay, here goes.” I swallowed. “That I love you. I’m crazy in love with you and I don’t want to ever take a break or be apart or spend one more night without you beside me because I love you. Which I said already but I’m going to say it again because I’ve never said it before.” Tears filled my eyes. “I love you, Asher.”
Asher stiffened and then relaxed, as if my words struck him and then took a moment to sink in. And then my firefighter’s face transformed with an expression I’d never seen before. Something so breathtaking, I could hardly believe that the emotion that radiated from behind his dark eyes and hard angles was all for me.
“I love you too, Faith,” he said, finally. Simply. “I’m in love with you and think I have been for a really long time.”
“Me too,” I whispered. “A really long time.”
He took another step closer, slipping his hands around my waist and pulling me close. “Is there anything else I should know about?”
“No. That’s it.”
“Good. Can I kiss younow?”
“God, yes.”
Asher bent his head and put his mouth on mine. His kiss was soft and deep and with an energy I hadn’t felt before. As if something that had been restless in him had settled into place.
Like serenity.
I felt the same, as if all my crazy chaos and self-doubt and uncertainty were laid to rest with Asher. He trusted and believed in me. And I believed in me, that I could love him the way he deserved to be loved.
“We should go,” he said after a moment. “I want to take you to dinner, and we can talk more about…things.”
I smiled and grabbed a tissue from the box on the table to wipe my red lipstick off his mouth. “Sounds good. I love talking aboutthingsbut hold on. Where’s Silas? You two are clearly in cahoots.”
“Nope,” Asher said as we moved toward the door. “I clubbed him on the way over here, stole his town car, and stashed him in the trunk.”
I rolled my eyes with a laugh. “That butthead. I could tell something was off when I talked to him the other day. He was giddy and Silas Marsh doesn’t getgiddy.”
Asher’s eyes flared. “You talked to him?”
“Just to confess my-almost sins.”
“Oh. Okay.”
“There’s thatokayagain. Areyouokay? You suddenly seem more nervous than I am.”
“This ceremony’s a big deal.” He tugged at his shirt collar. “You’re going to win, Faith. I can feel it.”
“Maybe,” I said as we stepped into the elevator. “Maybe not. I’m just so happy you’re with me. But Asher…we still have the same problems we had the last time I was in Kauai. Worse—I accepted the promotion. They’ve made me partner.”
He seemed unperturbed. “Of course, they did. Because you’re brilliant.”
I started to speak again but he kissed me silent, and my knees literally went weak at the intensity in it. The gentle, sucking pull of his mouth and the thoroughness of a kiss that felt like it was leaving a permanent mark on my heart.
