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“Please don’t be joking.” The words barely made it past her dry lips.
Dean smiled in that obnoxiously charming way she was never really able to resist and shook his head. “This isn’t a joke, Jillybean. I’ve loved you for two decades because you’re my best friend, but I finally pulled my head out of my ass long enough to realize I’m in love with you too.” He lifted one shoulder. “But I needed to feel like I could be the man you deserved before I told you.”
She moved to wrap her arms around his neck and plant herself firmly in his lap. “How could you ever think you didn’t?”
He tucked a strand of her hair behind her ear. “I didn’t have my shit together. And once I did, I had every intention of telling you everything and then…” He smirked with just a little more confidence than was necessary. “Then you came home and proposed to me.”
Heat,that had absolutely nothing to do with the sun crept up the back of her neck. “Yeah, about that…I saw my parents last night. I told them that they would need to find another way to access the trust or they’d have to sell off enough assets to cover everything.” She leaned her forehead against his. “I didn’t want you to feel any obligation to stay married to me.”
Dean tightened his hold on her waist. “This was never an obligation. I would have done anything to help you because I love you, but marrying you was a gift.” He brushed his lips across hers. “One I selfishly took advantage of so that I could do that whenever I wanted to.”
She pulled back slightly in the circle of his arms. “Dean, I love you too, and I…I want to stay married to you for that reason and only that reason. I don’t want money or misplaced familial duty to factor into it at all, so I took them out of the equation.”
“You only use my real name when it’s serious.”
“Oh, very serious.” Jillian slipped from his embrace and knelt on the dusty ground beside Fredrock. She reached around to the secret weapon she’d hidden beside the enormous stone slab. She held up the single red rose with a grin. “Will you accept this rose?”
He stood and grabbed her wrist, pulling her to her feet and fitting her firmly against his body. “I want more than a rose. I want you for real, forever.” His mouth clamped onto hers, needy, passionate, demanding.
Her overloaded heart nearly exploded out of her chest at his words. She reached up to grip the back of his neck and keep his lips tight on hers.
Long moments later when they finally pulled apart, she looked up at him, the last remnants of her adolescent uncertainty still lingering in her mind. “You’re sure?”
His sapphire irises melted into warm, molten pools. “For most of my life I haven’t been certain of much.” He dropped his head down to rest on hers. “But you have been the one thing I’ve never questioned.”
She fisted his shirt and brought his lips back onto hers. More than a decade of the feelings she had swallowed down and tried to ignore poured into the simple action that was anything but simple. “I love you.” She breathed the words against his mouth. “You have no idea how long I’ve waited to tell you that.”
Dean pulled back and tilted his head. “What do you mean?”
Jillian rolled her eyes. “You’re adorable, but completely oblivious. I started falling in love with you in high school, Sparky.”
His hand slipped beneath her top, stroking the bare skin of her back. His fingertips created a delicious shiver as they traveled up her spine. “What if I told you I fell in love with the seven-year-old version of you that appeared out of thin air wearing a fluffy, frothy, fancy dress?”
“I’d call you a liar.” She smiled and pressed herself against him. “But that’s a nice try.”
His wandering digits made their way under the waistband of her pants. “You know the most annoying part of this?”
Jillian looked up at him, quirking an eyebrow. “The most annoying part of loving me?”
“Yes,” he affirmed as his lips traveled from her mouth to the column of her neck. “The fact my asshole brothers were right.”
Chapter Twenty-Nine
Dean
Present Day
He turned her slightly, nudging her toward Fredrock, his thumb tracing circles on her back and sending chills down his spine. He blinked once, then twice, and a third time just to be certain she wouldn’t disappear in a cloud of smoke. This reality was almost too good to be true.
Jillian dropped her hand down to rest on his belt buckle. “Are we seriously doing this here? In the middle of the day?”
Dean offered her a smile filled with far more confidence than he actually felt. He couldn’t admit the truth that this might be more nerve-wracking than his first time. “This is our spot, Jilly. What could be better?”
“It’s also the middle of the damn day.” She rolled her eyes, but pulled his belt free of the loops with a whispered hiss. “Someone could see us.”
With a gentle push of his thumb, he freed the button on her capris. “You and I both know we’ve spent hours out here before without anyone noticing.” He gave a wicked grin as he slid the zipper down. “I guess you’ll just have to be quiet so you don’t draw too much attention.”
She tugged his shirt free from the waistband of his pants and tossed it to her right. She pulled her bottom lip between her teeth as her fingers traced the caverns between the muscles on his chest and abdomen. “I could say the same thing to you, Sparky. You’ve proven to be pretty…vocal yourself.”
