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I could easily tell him that the words had slipped during an orgasmic moment, but I wasn’t about to lie to him now.

“I’ve been wanting to tell you that for a long time,” I confessed.

He wrapped his arms around my nude body. “Tell me again now that I’m over the shock and I know that you mean it.”

Okay, so maybe his sudden freeze hadn’t been exactly as I’d interpreted it.

“I love you,” I said simply. “I have for a long time, but it just seemed too soon to say those words, and I wasn’t in a position to have anything more until my situation was resolved. Maybe I was also a little afraid that you really didn’t want to hear those words.”

He picked me up, carried me to the bed, and sat me down on the sheets gently.

“You’re definitely stuck with me now,” he said as he got into bed and pulled me close to him.

“Why?” I asked, confused.

“Because I love you, too, Reese Monroe, and now that I know that you love me, I’m never planning on ever letting you go.”

Reese

My eyes filled with tears.

Had he really just said those words to me?

I’d hoped…

I’d wanted…

I’d dreamed…

But now that Devon had actually said that he loved me, I felt like my heart was going to explode.

“Hey,” he said softly. “Being stuck with me isn’t going to bethatbad.”

I knew that he hated to see me cry, but I felt so emotional that I couldn’t stop the tears from falling no matter how hard I tried.

“When you didn’t say the words back to me right away, I was afraid that you didn’t feel the same way,” I told him. “I was afraid.”

He pulled me into his lap and started to rock my body. “I’m so sorry, sweetheart. I was shocked. I had the same fears. I knew what I wanted and how I felt. I was afraid that you didn’t feel the same way about me, too. I’m an idiot. I should have said those words back to you right away.”

God, we were both idiots.

My heart had always told me that he had to be feeling the same way I was, but my insecurities had kept me from blurting out those words before today.

“Marry me, Reese,” he said gruffly. “Be my wife and put me out of my misery.”

“Is that an order or are you asking?” I teased; my heart so full of joy that I wasn’t sure it could take this much happiness. Especially after the pain and fear of the last year.

Of course I wanted to marry him.

“I’m asking,” he admitted. “I don’t have a ring, but I’m definitely asking. We’ll pick out the ring together. I’ll do everything in my power to make you happy.”

I leaned my head back so I could look at him.

Everything I’d ever hoped for was there in those gorgeous dark eyes.

“Yes,” I said simply as another tear dropped onto my cheek. “I’ll pick out my own ring. You’d pick something outrageous. I want something small.”

“Big,” he argued. “I want every man out there to know that I was already smart enough to snap up the best woman on the planet.”