His jaw clenched as he sucked in a deep—and, I hoped, calming—breath through his nose. “I’m well aware of the fact that we aren’t together anymore. I’m also aware that we used a sperm donor. Not you. Not me. We. So whatever child was or wasn’t produced from that cycle of IVF is very much ours.” He arched an eyebrow, daring me to argue.
This was, in fact, the truth. But it wasn’t as simple as he made it out to be. There were a lot of factors in play, the biggest being my heart. I feared I wouldn’t be able to handle it if I gave him the only morsel of trust I had left only for him to turn his back on me—again.
But he looked really pissed, so I didn’t dare fill him in on that.
Instead, I kept my mouth shut and nodded in agreement. I could write him a letter informing him of such after I’d moved to an undisclosed location where he couldn’t find me and pin me to a couch.
“That means I’m involved in this one hundred percent,” he stated.
I nodded again, fighting the urge to amend with, Until you get too busy at work to worry about anything else—including, but not limited to, me.
“So I’ll repeat. My people are looking into it”—he paused and studied my eyes—“for us.”
I had a million things to say to the man who had broken my heart and was now claiming he wanted to be involved. None of them were going to get him off me so I could think clearly though. So I went with, “What’s for dinner?”
He stared for a moment longer, and then a huge grin broke across his face. “Gyros.”
“Are you insane!” she laughed.
There was a strong possibility that I was drunk, but I wasn’t insane.
I also wasn’t kidding.
I’d known Elisabeth for a matter of hours, and I knew with an absolute certainty that I wanted to spend the rest of my life with her.
Sure, it was crazy and impulsive, but it was so fucking right.
So I repeated, “Marry me.”
“I don’t even know you. We’ve had one date, and you fed me the wrong chicken parmesan. That doesn’t exactly scream husband material.” She shot me a gleaming, white smile.
“It was only wrong because you gave up. It’s not my fault you called it quits after plate number seven. I was committed to the cause.”
“Your cause was wasting seven plates of chicken parmesan. You know there are starving kids in Africa, right?” She giggled and buried her face in my neck.
“Is that a yes?” I asked, sifting my fingers through the back of her hair.
Her head jerked up, those deep-green eyes smiling nearly as much as her lips. “Um, no. It’s a definite no. However, despite the fact that I now think you have mental issues, I will agree to a second date.”
I teasingly squinted at her, and she bit her lips to stifle a laugh.
“Fine, but you should probably head home and pack your belongings, because that date starts now and it’s going to be so long it lasts a lifetime.”
She barked a laugh. “So, like, say…a marriage?”
“Yes. Exactly like a marriage. Phew. I’m so glad we agree.”
She shook her head and whispered, “Insane.”
I trailed my lips up her neck to her ear and whispered, “Say yes.”
“No.”
I grazed my teeth over her earlobe. “Say yes.”
“No,” she gasped, throwing her head back. The ends of her long hair tickling my hand at her back.
Unable to stop myself, I placed a kiss on the soft flesh at the base of her neck. As chills spread across her skin, I murmured, “You know you feel it, too.”
Fisting the back of my shirt, she moaned. “I’d like to feel more. Let’s go back to my place.”
I could give her more.
But I was taking forever.
I glided my hand from her hair to cup her jaw and drank her in. She wasn’t particularly tall, even in heels, so at six two, I had her by several inches, but the way her body fit against mine was nothing short of perfection. Her makeup had started to melt, and her lipstick had been left on the lips of the wineglasses at the bar. But she was still stunning. I couldn’t explain why I’d fallen head over heels for that woman as quickly as I had, but I knew I was never letting her go. Whether it took a month, a year, or a decade, I was going to make her say yes.
Sweeping my lips across hers, I murmured, “Fine. I’m not above coercing you into marriage with my sexual prowess.”
She laughed so loud that I would have been offended—if I hadn’t already been in love with her.
“Where’d you get beer?” Elisabeth asked as she scrambled from the couch.
“Seth,” I replied, hanging my head and rubbing my eyes.
Jesus, I’d wanted to kiss her. She was being a bitch, spouting shit she didn’t mean just because she was too scared to let me in.
But, even through it, those plump lips were calling to me.
I’d never been able to resist that woman. Despite that we’d fallen apart, it hadn’t changed. The hum for her was still in my veins. It never went away, but for two years, it had been dormant. I’d packed it down so tightly that I’d hoped it had died. But, with one look, my body began thrumming like a live wire.