Page 73 of The Bachelor Spy
They’d had enough doubts.
He reached out in the darkness and claimed her hand. Her fingers were cold, trembling slightly. Her? This force of nature and courage? Trembling.
“I want,” he said slowly, “to stop pretending I’m not utterly mad about you. I want to reorder my future so that you will be in it. I want”—He drew in a breath and took the risk, bringing her cool fingers to his lips and pressing a kiss against her wrist—”to woo you properly, in truth, with my unadulterated adoration, so that you’re fool enough to love me back.”
Love.He’d said it.
“Stephen—”
“It was a wish of yours, I believe you said.” He searched her face in the dim light. “Though I would do a far better job of wooing you if I wasn’t wearing this deplorable patient’s suit. Gratefully, we’re in the dark, so if you would be so kind, imagine me donning my navy, three-piece Henry Poole & Co.”
A surprised laugh burst from her, but she didn’t release her hold. In fact, her palms pressed against his chest.
“I know it’s complicated,” he rushed on, sobering. “I know you’re grieving your brother. I know you’re broken and hurting and probably not ready for whatever this is between us. But I’m tired of pretending, Evie. Tired of watching you from across rooms and not being able to touch you. Tired of fighting when what I really want is—”
She pulled him forward, her lips fully capturing his, cutting off his rambling confession with the kind of directness he’d always admired in her.
Yes, indeed. Straightforward. Right to the point.
Absolutely devastating.
And for a breath, Blake was too astonished to respond.
For all the times he’d feigned romantic situations in his career, he remained relatively untried in the art of true romance.
Love … like this.
But then his brain caught up with reality, and the parched or inexperienced places of his heart began to soak in the realization of the remarkable opportunity.
His hands found her waist, pulling her flush against him, as he reveled in the taste of her full, delightful lips. It was ridiculous and dangerous and wholly ill-advised, but nothing in his life had ever felt as perfect as Evie Montgomery in his arms, leaving an impression on his lips and his life from which he’d never recover.
Her hands fisted in his shirt, holding on as if he were the only solid thing in a world gone mad. His fingers slid into her hair, dislodging pins he couldn’t see, answering her ardor with a certainty he felt in every fiber of his being.
She tasted like salt from tears and something sweeter beneath, and her initial control bent to him. Giving to him. And he took the surrender with unhurried reverence, running his palm from her cheek down her neck and back. Feathering kisses across her full lips before delving into something more thorough. Drawing her against him and investigating the warm skin of her ear and neck until she released the sweetest sound of pleasure—half appreciation, half benediction.
And time suspended with words still to be said and hardships still to be faced, but one perfectly clear understanding crystallizing between them.
Evie Montgomery was his future.
Whatever that future looked like from this point forward.
When they finally broke apart, both breathing hard, Evie pressed her forehead to his, palms warming his cheeks. “That was a very horrible idea, you know.”
“The best horrible idea I’ve ever experienced.”
“It will make us distracted.” Though she didn’t seem overly concerned, given the way she drew him into another kiss.
His lips curved against hers. “Or create incredible focus in the best of ways, sweetheart.”
“Sweetheart?” She whispered the word as if it surprised her … yet she smiled before sighing into him, resting her head against his once more. “I’m not the sort to lower my guard.”
“I know.” Which made it even more powerfully tender.
“Which means …” Her finger traced his lips before she pressed another kiss to them. “Youcannotdie on me. You understand? Those are orders from your partner.” She looked up, searching his face in the darkness. “I could not bear it.”
Those eyes, so large and fathomless, spoke sentences more. Depths more. Pleading, promising, giving her heart in a way he was certain her words could never match. “As far as it is within my power to control, dearest, I will endeavor to comply with your wishes.”
One of her dark brows rose along with a corner of those fantastic lips of hers. “The worddearestand that very clever response are remarkably dashing, Mr. Blake. I like the sentiment behind both exceedingly.”
