Page 222

He gathered her close, and his serious tone softened. “Kat, I’m not that guy. I don’t make promises I can’t keep. Hell, I don’t make promises. Period.” He searched her eyes, and shewondered if he could see how she was hanging on to his every word and her hopeful heart was hanging by a thread.

“Except to you, Kat. I want more with you, and I’m prepared to make you promises that I will most definitely keep.” He ran his fingers through her hair. “I want my life to include a bartender slash waitress turned PR girl from Richmond, Virginia.”

She could hardly breathe, her heart was so full.

“Say you want that, too, Kat. Say you feel what I feel. Tell me that you feel like the pieces of your life have finally come together.” He caressed her cheek, making the thickening in her throat even worse. “You’ve always been a part of me, and I never want that to change.”

She heard the honesty in his voice, saw the pleading in his gaze. God, how could she have fallen so hard so fast? “I want it, Eric. I want it all. I’m just scared.”

“Me too.” He pressed his lips to hers. “But not of us. I’m scared of walking out of this bathroom and never feeling what I feel again. I’m scared of not seeing you for another twenty years.”

She gulped in air to ensure she was still breathing. “I’m right there with you. But where do we go from here?”

His smile was relieved and sexy and so full of love she pressed herself closer to him, wanting to be sure he saw the same thing in her eyes as she did in his.

“I think we start with dinner,” he said as he pressed his lips to hers. “And then maybe dessert. And then, hopefully, we’ll fall into forever.”