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“Sorry.” She took several steps back from him. “Guess I missed you more than I thought.”
“Don’t make light of this, Eve.”
The tone of his voice, the look in his eyes, the stillness of his body told her this was as serious as it got. Her next words could either put them in a different kind of relationship, or they would go back to what they had been.
Come on, Eve. You don’t back down from anything. Don’t back down from this. Tell him what you want. What you’ve wanted for years.
Showing her that he was much more courageous than she was, he said quietly, “Do you want more?”
“Yes.”
The smile on his face would rival the sun. Eve could barely hear herself think, her heart was pounding so hard. She had just made herself vulnerable and open. Something she tried very hard not to do. But this was Gideon.
Pulling her back into his arms, he breathed into her ear, “That’s very good news.”
“I’m still angry with you.”
“I would expect nothing less.”
“So where do we go from here?”
“Where do you want to go?”
Shaking her head, she grinned at him. “Nope. I’m not going to be the only one hanging out on a limb here. Tell me what you want.”
“You,” he said simply.
“For how long?”
“Forever.”
She’d meant how long had he felt this way, but the way he was looking at her, she knew he meant something else.
“Why didn’t you tell me before?”
“I couldn’t. If I had, I would’ve had to tell you about my agreement with your father. And if I’d done that, you might’ve sent me away. I couldn’t take the chance.”
“After that night in Prague, I thought…”
“Saying those things to you that morning was one of the hardest things I’ve ever done. That night…” He shook his head. “That night was the greatest night of my life.”
Emotions bubbled within her. To know he had felt the same way meant so much. “We’ve wasted a lot of time.”
“No moment spent with you has ever been wasted.”
When he said stuff like that, he made it almost impossible for her to stay mad at him. And she knew Gideon never said things he didn’t mean.
“It feels like we’ve taken a long journey to get here.”
“But what a journey we’ve had. Wouldn’t trade it for anything.”
“You think we can make this work? Best friends. Partners. Lovers?”
“I think if anyone can, it’s us.”
“Where do we go from here?”
His smile was both tender and sexy. “You’ve already asked that question. You need me to give you directions?”