“Noted.” He pressed his lips to mine in a reverent kiss. Then he leaned away and smiled, declaring, “You’re gonna be Elisabeth—with an S—Leblanc by the end of the day.”
I smiled back. “Leblanc with a capital or lowercase B?”
He smirked. “Does it matter?”
I struggled to get rid of my smile, but the best I could do was cover it with my hand. “Yes, it matters. Our lives together hang in the balance of this question right here. Right now.”
He chewed on his bottom lip, trying to cover his own shit-eating grin. “Lowercase.”
I sucked in a deep breath and then took the biggest risk of my entire life.
And I did it knowing that it wasn’t really a risk at all.
Because, regardless of my answer, I would love this man for the rest of my life.
“Okay, then. Roman Leblanc—with a lowercase B—let’s get married.”
I kept my eyes closed as I stretched. “What time is it?” I asked, rolling to my side and curling around him.
“Jesus,” he mumbled as I felt him touch the spaghetti strap of my nightie. His thumb grazed my skin as it trailed down between my breasts. My nipples peaked in anticipation.
But then he moved the fabric to cover me. Wrong direction.
I groaned in disappointment when consciousness finally pulled me from my dream world.
My eyes flashed open, and I found him staring down at my chest as he righted the material over my exposed breast.
I bolted upright and scrambled across the bed, dragging the sheet with me. “Wh-what are you doing here?” I asked, memories of the night before still lost in the early morning fog.
He twisted his lips, his eyes darkening as they slid to my hands, which were clutching the sheet, then back again. “Our legal team will be here in fifteen minutes. I thought you might like to get dressed.”
With that, the world came crashing back down around me. My body sagged, and my heart wrenched. I would have rather stayed in bed all day and forget that I needed a legal team in the first place.
“Okay,” I forced out.
Before I knew it, his hand was at the back of my neck, dragging me toward him. It wasn’t rough, but it was demanding. He tucked my face into his neck and shifted so my chest was crushed against his side.
I didn’t fight. I’d just woken up and didn’t have it in me. Or so I told myself as I nuzzled closer.
“It’s gonna be okay, Lissy,” he whispered into my hair, his lips sealing the promise with a kiss on my crown.
“Okay,” I mumbled, doing my best to tamp the overwhelming anxiety down.
“It’s just a meeting with Whit and Kaplin to see what our options are.”
“Okay,” I agreed again.
One hand remained at the back of my neck, and he folded the other arm around my shoulders, holding me so tight that it was as if he could keep me from falling apart. And this was Roman; he might have been the only one who could. It was his superpower as far as I was concerned.
“I’m right here. One hundred percent,” he said, continuing with the reassurance.
I continued with the noncommittal declarations of acceptance. “Okay.”
“You want some coffee?” he asked before kissing the top of my head again.
I shouldn’t have liked that as much as I did.
There were reasons Roman and I were no longer together. I needed to focus on those and not the desire to crawl into his lap and ride out the rest of the day in his arms.
Drawing in a breath, I forced myself to my feet. “I need to get dressed, but yeah, I’d love coffee. The creamer is—”
“In the cabinet. Powder. I remember,” he said, scrubbing his hands over his…
Jeans?
“Where’d you get clothes?” I asked, heading to my closet—the one that used to be his.
“Seth. He dropped off my car this morning, too.”
I turned and looked through the blinds to see a brand-spanking-new Range Rover sitting in my driveway. And, for reasons I didn’t understand, just the sight of that fucking car sent ice through my veins. This wasn’t the past where Roman was mine and he woke me up and held me in the morning while I calmed myself from the stress of the day.
This was the present where Roman had checked out on me, we’d gotten a divorce, and he’d started up a multimillion-dollar company while I’d struggled to breathe.
Anger was a worthless emotion, but bitterness and resentment were impossible to ignore.
I snapped the blinds shut as I sniped, “That’s a far cry from the broke-down Honda you left in.”
I couldn’t see him, but I felt the air crackle around us. Then, just as quickly, everything fell flat. Glancing over my shoulder, I saw him moving toward me—fast.
His chest hit my back at the same time that fucking hand of his slid into my hair.
My body responded immediately, spiking my pulse and flushing my cheeks.
With a gentle tug, he sent chills spreading over my skin as he pulled my head back. Our eyes met. Mine were wide. His were feral.
I couldn’t breathe.
I couldn’t talk.
I couldn’t even think.