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All of a sudden, I felt like I’d swallowed my tongue. Had he just said what I thought? “Your betasitter? Aren’t you a little old for one?”
“I am. And that’s why I let you go. I know I’m too old for you, princess. Too old. Too grumpy. I don’t deserve you. But I need you. And maybe… you need me, too?”
I chewed at my lip. Was this all because he thought I might be pregnant? My heart pounding, I called out, “Marguerite, am I pregnant?”
Even through the door, her voice was clear. “We haven’t run the test yet.”
“Does it matter, Grumpy? Will you still want me if I’m not pregnant?”
“Fuck yes. And if you’re not, then you will be soon,” he replied with a snarl. Then he picked me up, threw me over one shoulder, and carried me caveman-style out of the office. The nurse squeaked, but gave me a thumbs up. Dr. Rimbolt just laughed. I waved at them all as I bounced along down the hall. Grumpy was almost running now.
“What are you doing?” Aunt Marguerite shouted. “Where are you going?”
“Home,” Giovanni called back, mashing the elevator button so hard I thought it would break.
“My home?” I squeaked.
“No, Sunshine. Our home.”
The air in the elevator as we descended was so thick with pheromones, our scents mingling, that when it finally opened back up at the ground floor, most of the people waiting at the bottom all backed away, fanning their faces. Two of them started making out almost instantly, the tidal wave of our combined pheromones working their magic. One old man made a snarky comment about “Kids these days.”
“Hear that, Grumpy?” I whispered in his ear. “You’re a kid.”
He didn’t answer, and from the sound of the constant rumbling growl that he was making, I had a feeling he was past words.
I pressed my lower half closer to him as he strode toward the main hospital doors. The growl was vibrating up from his chest to my torso, and it reminded me of the first time I’d taken a tandem ride on a friend’s motorbike in high school.
The air around us blossomed, and Giovani finally managed words. “Whatever you’re thinking about, stop. I’ll take you right against the doors of the hospital, Sunshine. I’m hanging by a fucking thread.” He let me slip down so my arms were around his neck, and I wrapped my legs around his waist.
“I was remembering my first orgasm,” I whispered in his ear. “I was riding behind Steve Dorfermeyer on his motorbike our junior year of high school. The vibrations were all I needed.” I pressed my pelvis against him, glad I’d worn a skirt long enough to cover everything that was going on below. “If you don’t stop growling, Grumpy, I’m not going to be able to control myself.” I ground my pelvis into him, holding my breath slightly. Almost... there…
“No, no, no, little brat,” Giovanni muttered, moving even faster toward the doors now. “The next orgasm you have is going to be on my cock, in our bedroom, and you’re going to beg me for it.”
Our bedroom.
“Grumpy? When you said you wanted me to be yours… what did you mean?” He didn’t answer, just kept moving, and I couldn't stop the tiny sob that crept out. It had sounded like he wanted me to be with him from now on.
But he’d pulled away from me so many times now. He’d let me go. How could I be sure this was for real?
For forever?
“Sunshine, no, don’t cry. Why are you crying?” The sunlight outside was almost too harsh, and I ducked my head, not wanting him to see my fear, my uncertainty.
“It’s just… you let me go. I don’t know if I can do whatever this is, if you’re going to leave me again.” I forced out the next words. “And you might. You keep saying I’m too young. I know I’m notenoughfor someone like you.”
I didn’t know what was happening next, but suddenly, I was standing, and Giovanni was on one knee in front of me, my hands gripped in his. His face was ravaged, his dark eyes haunted. “Sunshine, no. I made such terrible mistakes. Trust me when I say, I know letting you go, even for just days, was wrong.” A tiny glimmer in his eye flared, then vanished. “My own family isn’t speaking with me. Chef Juliette refuses to cook for me. My CFO sends me links to therapists and self-help books every damned day.”
I almost smiled at that. “It was weeks, not days. Two weeks.”
“I swear on my life, from now on, I will spend every day I have showing you how perfect for me you are. No, just how perfect you are.” He closed his eyes. “You are beloved by everyone who meets you. When you walk into a room, you change the atmosphere. You make everyone who meets you… better.” He squeezed my hands gently. “You mademebetter. You taught me how to love.”
I tried to speak, but he went down on both knees now.
“Soleil Fairweather, I am a miserable asshole. I do not deserve you, but I can’t seem to let you go, to let you have the life you should with a better man.” He opened his dark eyes, equal parts longing and hope reflected in them. “Please tell me you'll forgive me. Make my days bright, my life worth something. Please love me, and never leave me again.”
I swallowed hard. It seemed like fireworks were going off all around us, just like at the end of the princess movies I’d watched as a little girl. “Grumpy, I don't know why you think you don’t deserve me. But I’m not dumb enough to turn down a man who makes my heart sing, and makes my lady bits pray for mercy. I forgive you. I love you.”
There was something happening around us. Shouting, more fireworks, some sort of argument, but I couldn't look away from the miracle in front of me.
