Page 71 of Ruining His Smirk

“It was obvious, wasn’t it?”

“What was?”

“Our difference, sweetheart. You were a scientist, educated, wore designer clothes, spoke posh, and here I was.”

“What do you mean… why’re you talking like you are someone beneath me or something ugly like that?”

“Isn’t that what it is? My whole life, I’ve walked into rooms where people hear the way I talk or see what I do and decide that I’m just the hired help. Not the man with the brains to come up the big plan. I’m just the ranch hand. I don’t have no fancy degrees. My folks weren’t rich. We weren’t poor, but you know, ranch life is no joke.”

“Wait a minute. I love your background. I literally fantasized about you being a cowboy. This is not… I never imagined anything inferior about your intelligence or competence. Oh… shit, I’m terribly sorry.”

“It’s okay, darlin’, but you repeated it on the ship, and I just believed you.”

“No, it’s not okay! When I said men like you… I meant men who liked the way I looked until something about me challenged them. They wanted softness from me. Beauty. Compliance. Then, when they discovered I had ambition or strength or boundaries, they treated those things as an insult.”

My hands curled into fists.

“When you accused me of using my looks,” he continued, “I heard all of them. Every man who had wanted me and then tried to reduce me to the part he found convenient. But Garrett…” He took my face in his hands. “Listen to me, please. I didn’t mean your work. Or your job or your background. I absolutely love the way you talk. I don’t talk posh. I just talk British.”

“Yeah, that I know now.”

“I admire your amazing technical skills. Holy hell, your math skills are insane.”

“Really?” I breathed.

“Of course! You don’t need me to validate that. Didn’t you see how everyone at your conference regarded you with respect?”

“I need it from you. Only your opinion matters where it counts,” I replied. I lifted one of his hands from my face and placed it on my heart.

“Oh, you damn romantic. If only you knew… Garrett, I’ve been crushing on you for a year. A whole year. No one interests me anymore. No one can hold a candle to you. God, the way you handle everything with such confidence. The way you are so soft with Dexter. I’m… aahh, this is so embarrassing, but please trust me, you’ve been the literal man of my dreams. If you saw my sketchbook—”

“I have.”

Nate squeaked and almost fell out of my lap. The inspection vehicle’s lights appeared briefly in the distance, moving along the far side before vanishing again.

Laughter rumbled up from my very depths. “I saw all the drawings,” I said.

“No!” Nate stared at me in horror.

“I never knew knights—”

Nate slapped a hand over my mouth. “No! You don’t know anything.”

I grinned beneath his palm and pulled him until he was plastered against me.

Nate’s eyes closed and he breathed slowly. “I think I started falling for you before we ever crossed blades,” he said shyly. “I mean literal blades. Not our … oh my goodness, the innuendos.”

I laughed harder and removed his hand from my mouth. “It’ll be our story.”

“I think I am falling in love with you,” he said.

My breath caught. “Sweetheart, I’m already there. And I should’ve told you before, but your pretty smile distracted me too much.”

I looked at him in the dim light. Sitting at the bottom of the ocean felt like the appropriate time to tell him the whole truth.

“Haven’t wanted anybody else since last winter. Don’t reckon that’s gonna change, neither.”

I heard him gasp and then his mouth found mine and his fingers tightened in my hair.