The sliding glass door was ajar, and she wondered if someone had gone out the back. Moving closer to it, she nearly had heart failure as a large body emerged from the kitchen.
“You didn’t lock the door,” the large form said in an angry, guttural tone.
Dante!
Sarah’s heart stuttered for just a second before it kicked in and started beating again. “Dante. Oh my God. You scared me,” she told him breathlessly.
“You were here alone and you didn’t lock the damn door,” he grumbled.
“What are you doing here?” she asked, still stunned.
“I got your message,” he said huskily, his intense, hazel eyes like liquid flames as he scanned her face.
He hadn’t left yet? “You weren’t already gone?”
“Almost. We were delayed, but I was already planning on coming back.”
“Why?” Sarah asked, her eyes roaming covetously over the handsome, beloved face that she hadn’t expected to see again for quite some time. “Did you forget something?”
“Yeah,” he answered gruffly. “You.”
Sarah’s heart fell. “Dante, I can’t leave right now—”
“I don’t want you to leave. I want you to stay here with me.”
She shook her head. “I don’t understand.”
“I mean I’m not leaving, Sarah. You belong here, and I belong with you. I want us to stay here. I want you to marry me.” Dante continued to watch her expression anxiously.
Sarah tried to clamp down on the elation she felt coursing through her veins. Dante couldn’t stay here. She could practice anywhere, but he had a career to worry about in Los Angeles. “Your job—”
“I can take a job here. God knows Joe Landon reminds me about the detective vacancy he has every time I see him. My job won’t be the same anymore without Patrick. I think it’s a good time to move on with everything, including us. I need you, Sarah. We’re happy here. If you’d marry me, I’d be even happier,” Dante rumbled, his expression pensive.
“We’ve never talked about marriage,” she replied, dazed and overwhelmed. There was nothing she wanted more than to be with Dante forever, but he’d never mentioned marriage. He hadn’t even told her what he’d thought about her declaration of love.
“I don’t want you to resent me later, once the thrill of a new relationship wears off and you realize that you gave up a career you worked very hard for.” Would he hate her later if he gave up his job in Los Angeles?
“I’m not going to resent you. In fact, you saved me. I don’t want to go back,” he told her roughly. “Jesus, you’re stubborn. Aren’t you listening to what I’m saying?”
She was definitely hearing him, but part of her was afraid this was all just a very good dream. He wanted to stay here, marry her, and build a life together? “I am listening. I’m just afraid that this is all too good to be true,” she told him quietly. “I never planned on you, Dante.”
“I never planned on you, either, sweetheart, but you’re the best damn gift I’ve ever gotten,” Dante rasped, holding his arms out to her.
Sarah didn’t think, she just leaped, catapulting herself into Dante’s strong, capable arms with a squeak of elation. Wrapping her arms around his neck, she closed her eyes, breathing in his masculine, musky smell that always made her feel like she was home, no matter where she was. She felt his arms tighten around her, holding her like he’d never let go.
“Thank fuck,” Dante said in a harsh whisper against her ear. “Now tell me,” Dante demanded, his voice vibrating against her temple. “I want to hear it in person.”
Sarah didn’t hesitate. “I love you,” she said obligingly. “I don’t know why it happened or when. I just do. I can’t help it.”
“I don’t want you to help it,” Dante replied in a low roar, moving her forward until her back was against the wall. “I love you, too. I love you so much that I can’t think straight. Maybe if I would have actually had a brain cell left in my head, I would have realized that I really didn’t want to go anywhere.”
Sarah smiled against his shoulder, her heart thundering like a jackhammer. He loved her back.
He pushed slightly away from her and lifted his forest-green shirt over his head and dropped it on the floor. Then he pulled her T-shirt over her head and released the front clasp on her bra, pulling it down her arms until it dropped into the growing pile of clothing at their feet.
“What are you doing?” she asked, bemused.
He unsnapped her jeans and then his own, jerking the denim down her legs and taking her scanty panties with it. “I need to hear you say it while I’m inside you,” he said, his breath coming heavily between his lips.
“What if I don’t want to say it right at that moment?” she asked him teasingly.
“You will,” he grunted, pinning her against the wall with her hands over her head. “Tell me,” he demanded arrogantly.