Page 191 of Untouchable

“Me either.”

She raised her head to meet his eyes, and they gazed at each other for a long moment, understanding each other completely.

“I think mine has completely swallowed up the beast,” he added, a wry, resigned note in his voice. He must still be thinking about her comment before, as she’d been trying to spur him to put away his work.

“No, it hasn’t. The beast is still lurking in there somewhere. I like when he comes out to play occasionally.”

His brown eyes ignited at her words, and his focus lowered briefly to her breasts, which were barely covered with the material of her suit.

She smiled, her heart overflowing with a sudden, stark realization of how far they’d come in the past year. “But I think I was right when I told you on the first day we met that, by the time I was through with you, all your unrelenting alpha-maleness would be broken.”

“Not broken,” he objected, the corners of his mouth tilting up again. “Maybe bent a little.”

She smiled and kissed him briefly. “Just so you know, you were right about me too. I used to think I was better off alone. I don’t think that anymore.”

“Good. Because you’re stuck with this man, no matter how old and boring and work obsessed he gets.”

“I’m not stuck with you. I chose you out of all the other men I could have had.”

His eyebrows arched. “Just how many other men are we talking about?”

She giggled and gave him a soft hug. “I’m not sure you’re in a good position to start comparing numbers.”

“Probably not,” he agreed drily. Then he adjusted her so she was looking at him again, his expression sobering. “I might be half the man I was before, but it’s the better half. You know that, right?”

She felt her chest tighten with feeling again, knowing how much he meant it, knowing how far he had come to be able to share his heart so nakedly. She nodded, her eyes burning slightly, realizing how far she had come too. “Yes. I know it. Same here.”

After a minute of silent acknowledgment, she gave her head a little shake, deciding the sappy part of the afternoon was over. “Now,” she said, pitching her tone as a taunt again, “if you thinkyou can manage to rouse the beast a little, I can think of a few things I’d like him to do.”

It worked. Of course it worked. Some things would never change.

And Caleb Marshall would never let a challenge go unanswered.