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Her stomach bottomed out, her heart dipping so swiftly it felt like it fell right out of her body?—

“It’s not that,” he said quickly. “It’s— it’s not what it looks like. It’s— Shit.” He chuckled, briefly tipping his face to the ceiling. Despite her erratically pounding heart, and the nerves twisting her stomach into tight knots, she found herself distracted by the sight of his laughing face. That big, dimpled grin that gave her so many butterflies. “I’m getting onbothknees,” he declared, doing exactly that, planting both knees on the hardwood floor. “But if you’d rather I popped the question, I can make that happen, too.” He took her hands into his.

The offer stunned her—and so did the easy way in which he said it, as if he’d already thought about proposing to her a dozen times. As if he were testing the waters by mentioning it to her in such a casual way. “I…” Gods, her heart wasracing,and her stomach was doing backflips and somersaults and all kinds ofother acrobatics. The butterflies were still in there, too. It was intense, how he made her feel.Intense.

“Forget the question popping,” he said gently. “Hear me out instead.”

She took several deep, deep breaths. “Okay.”

“Relax, baby.”

“I’m relaxed,” she lied.

“Your heart is racing.”

It really was. “You scared me,” she confessed.

An emotion she couldn’t read flickered across his handsome face. “Does the thought of me getting down on one knee frighten you that much?”

“No,” she said—wholeheartedly and without hesitation. “No, it doesn’t.”

Quite the opposite, actually. It made her happy. Really,reallyhappy. The thought of wearing Darien Cassel’s ring on her finger… She’d dreamt about it a lot. Ever since the moment she realized she was in love with him and he was, utterly and without question, perfect for her. “You just…caught me off guard,” she said. “I panicked.”

“All right, note to self: Don’t catch her off guard next time.” He chuckled, and her heart tumbled at his mention ofnext time.“Can we move onto the real reason I’m on my knees, or are you going to collapse on me?”

“I’m fine,” she said. But the words came out breathy and strained.

“Loren,” he reproached. His tone was soft, and his eyes even softer. “I need to know that you’re not going to faint.”

“I won’t faint.”

He waited a few seconds, just to make sure she really wouldn’t faint. As soon as her heart slowed to a normal rhythm, he began to speak.

“I’m sorry, sweetheart.” The words were so gruff, so heavy with emotion, her eyes instantly welled up. “I know you’re upset. And I know I can’t take back what I did. But I need you to understand how sorry I am. I’ve been beating myself up over it non-stop. I feel like the worst boyfriend in the world. I hate knowing that you’re sad and that I’m the person who caused you to feel this way.” He paused just long enough to swallow. “After this, once I get up off this floor, if you decide you still want space, you can have it, I’ll respect your decision and I won’t pressure you anymore, but— I’m not going to lie, I’m going insane over here. You’ve been right in front of me ever since we ran into each other in Yveswich, and yet I feel like I’ve lost you. And I’m willing to do anything—anything—to get you back.”

She dropped her gaze to the floor, a breath shaking through her.

Darien dipped his head to catch her eye. “You’re my everything, Loren. I need you to understand that. You’re my whole world. I love you more than I can put into words, but I’m trying, baby, I’m trying to express myself properly, but gods, it’s hard.” He forced a chuckle, and when she looked him in the eyes she saw that they were shining, the dark fringe of his lashes damp. He continued, “No words are good enough to adequately express how I feel for you. I just— I’m begging you to forgive me, sweetheart. Please.”

He gave her a moment to decide, his words—the words he believed were inadequate, but were so damn perfect to her ears—hanging in the air between them. He stayed right where he was, gazing up at her from where he knelt on the floor, his hands gently clasping hers.

She tugged on those hands, urging him to stand. “Stand up,” she said softly.

He obeyed. Again, she had to tip her head back to look him in the eyes, the rubber neck she’d mentioned sounding more appealing by the minute.

“I already forgave you,” she said. “The minute I saw how upset you were at the holding center. When you told those awful men that you’d turn into an animal if they took me from you.” Despite the heavy emotions weighing both of them down, a laugh slipped out of her.

He cracked a smile and tipped his head to the side, the action causing a strand of dark hair to sweep across his brow. “That’s what made you forgive me? Me, threatening to turn into an animal?” It was his turn to laugh—a smooth, attractive sound that gave her pleasant, full-body shivers.

She shrugged. “I think I forgave you the minute you left Roman’s. After you told me about the bargain. I ran out of the house and watched you as you drove away, and I wished…I wished I hadn’t been so hard on you.”

He brushed his thumbs across her hands, his calluses scraping across her skin. The sensation was so inviting, she found herself wishing he would touch her in other, much more sensitive places. “I guess we both said a lot of things that we didn’t mean, hey?” he said, his voice husky. His eyes dipped to her mouth, his stare heating as she licked her lips. “So…you forgive me?” Hope shone in those steel-blue eyes.

She nodded. “Yes. Yes, I forgive you.”

He exhaled in a rush, as if he’d been holding his breath for days, the tension visibly leaving his body. “Thank fuck.”

She stopped breathing as he took her face into his hands. Gently, he tipped her head back, his thumbs brushing across her cheeks. Her heart began to skip whole beats as he slid those hands to the back of her head, tunneling his fingers into her thick hair…and then slanted his soft mouth over hers.