Page 97 of Let Me Say It Again

I scrubbed a hand down my face. “Yes, yes, it is.”

She swallowed, running a hand through her hair before shaking her head. Was she seriously going to do this? “It was all an act. None of it was real.”

She had to be kidding me. She was there during all of this, right? She had to have known that it stopped being fake. Honestly, I think I’d wanted it to be real from the very beginning and just hadn’t admitted it to myself. “You don’t believe that,” I responded, still holding the ring, waiting for her to do me theincredible honor of putting it back on her finger, the only place I ever wanted to see it.

“I don’t know what to believe.”

“Tell me what you want. If you want me to go, I’ll go.”

She exhaled, sucking her bottom lip in before releasing it. “I want you.”

“That’s all I get?” This whole time, and that was it. That was the only confession she could give me. Wow, was it too much to ask for more? Kidding.

She smiled, placing a hand in my hair and combing my wet hair back. “Take it or leave it, Red.”

Staring into her eyes, I couldn’t help but laugh. “I’ll take it.”

She held out her ring finger for me and nudged her chin. “What are you waiting for, honeybun? I think you havemyring.”

I slid the ring back on her finger. “From the moment I bought this ring, I think a part of me knew it belonged on your finger forever.”

“Are you sure this is what you want, though, because I’m not sure I fit into your world. I don’t want you to wake up one morning and—”

“Jade, you belong with me, got it? Anywhere I am is where you belong and there’s no two ways about it.”

“I’ve never felt like I had a place in this world,” she insisted.

“Your place is with me.”

She leaned in and slammed her lips over mine. I brought her lower lip into my mouth and tugged it between my teeth before licking the area to soothe any hurt I may have caused with my teeth. Then she licked the seam of my lips, getting me to part for her. Without hesitation, her tongue entered my mouth, and next thing I knew the kiss hit an all-time high.

No one could ever say we weren’t intense or that we didn’t have off-the-charts chemistry. Because we undoubtedly did.

Placing her hand on my chest, she pushed off me, breaking the kiss that probably would have led to sex in the back of the taxi had she not stopped us. “This almost feels fake,” she said.

“It’s as real as it gets. But if you need to hear it again, then let me say it again.”

“Hmm?”

“You’re mine.”

“Not exactly what you said—”

“Are you seriously going to argue with me right now?”

She laughed. “No, I’ll let you win this one.”

“Oh, you’ll let me?” I bent down and began nuzzling her neck, the touch causing her to do that laugh-snort thing I loved so much.

“Yeah, I’ll let you.”