She gasped his name as he cursed and filled her in every capacity, physically and emotionally. A leftover tear dripped from her eye, splattering on his shoulder.

“Shhh,” he whispered, stilling his movements. His cheek grazed hers, deliciously coarse with a hint of stubble, as he sought the corner of her lips with his. “I love you.”

“Oh, God.” She lifted her head to meet his kiss, joy and elation flooding her along with the fear that could only come with getting the one thing she’d wanted for so long. She wouldn’t let it go this time. “I love you.”

“Baby, I’m sorry.”

He reached up to wipe her tears away and she let him for a few moments, until his scrutiny became too much and she pitched herself into his arms. Gently, he withdrew from her almost all the way before guiding himself back into her desperate heat. Her body readily welcomed him as his lips explored the wetness on her cheek.

“These tears are all for me…” he murmured, sliding his hands beneath her bottom to hold her still as he took her with gentle thrusts.

She couldn’t form a reply at the moment; her throat muscles were locked around her moans of ecstasy. Those deep, slow strokes were driving her out of her mind. After just a couple of days he already knew all the right places on her body, knew when to keep it slow to build her to a frenzy, knew when to give it to her hard and send her flying. And knew when she needed him to do to her whatever he wanted.

“Oh, yes, Evan.” Her makeup would be wrecked and her hair would be a mess, but a moment later she couldn’t think of anything except him inside her as she clenched her teeth against the pleasure and dug her fingernails into his shoulders. Her legs went around his waist on some inclination all their own, locking at the ankles. She hadn’t bothered to kick her heels off, needing to revel in how sexy and desirable she felt wrapped around him half-clothed. “Just like that.”

“So sweet.” He groaned, keeping his pace, his jaw pulled tense as his gaze burned at her like flame through emeralds. She lost her breath as the heat they produced together rose to a blistering fullness. “Are they?”

She knew what he meant, but at that precise moment, she couldn’t answer him. She came like a slingshot had flung her toward the sun. Evan abandoned his slow pace to join her, his groans in her ear and the new strength of his thrusts powering her ascent. But she knew him well enough to realize she wouldn’t be able to avoid his questions for long.

“They’re for you,” she whimpered as she descended from the heights, drifting between exhaustion and euphoria. Thank God, this was finally done. “You’ve given me back everything he took away, and then some.”

The tension in his body flowed out of him, and he relaxed into her embrace. “I’ll give you more than he ever did.”

He would, she thought as he gathered her closer, putting his lips to her ear as she shivered. His hands prowled her tenderly, molding to each curve before moving to the next. She was already boneless, but when his lips slanted over hers again and again, she thought she was going to melt through the desk. But she needed her senses, had to sort all this out. “What happens now?”

He smiled, tracing a finger down her face. “Well, right now we’ll compose ourselves for a few minutes, and then I’ll take you to lunch. Then I’ll go kick your boss’s ass in court, since you’ve reenergized me. Tonight, I’ll take you home, and I won’t let you leave. You won’t spend Christmas like you did last year. You’ll spend it with me. I’ll take you to Florence to meet my family there, if you want. Next summer I’ll take you wherever you want to go. At some point during all this, I’ll take you to the altar, if you’ll have me—”

“I’d marry you in a heartbeat, Evan Ross.” The words tumbled out in an emotional tangle of laughter and indescribable relief. She’d seen him at his best and at his worst through the years. Whether he was ecstatically happy, fighting mad, sick or down in the dumps, she’d loved him all the same. “I’ve known you long enough to be certain of that.”

He quickly put his finger to her lips. “Not another word. I refuse to tell our kids I proposed to you on my office desk.”

“Why not?” she joked. “They can know Mom and Dad were so in love they had to maul each other wherever the mood struck.”

He laughed. “True. But give me time to do this right. To give you everything you deserve. And I will, I promise.”

“Oh my God,” she whimpered. “Just tell me this isn’t a dream.”

“It’s real. And speaking of dreams, I want you to follow yours. Don’t you dare let me keep you from it.”

Her lips curled. “So you’re gonna make me go to law school?”

She could let that smile of his eat her alive and she’d die happy. “Yep. It’s a requirement.” He laughed as she pinched him on the side. “I mean it, if you want to go to law school, then go, and I will support you all the way. I’ll even throw in free tutoring. Wait until you see my Socratic method, baby.”

Her burst of laughter agitated more tears, sending them trickling over her cheeks. He reached up to wipe them away. “And from now on I’ll make sure this is something you’ll do only out of joy, and never pain.”

They strolled from his office twenty minutes later with every semblance of professionalism. Kelsey had reapplied her lipstick and managed to tame her hair, but she knew nothing would remove the sensuous satiation from her face. Evan didn’t hesitate to hold her hand as they walked down the hall, giving her the sense that it was them against the world.

Delilah looked up from her computer as they passed, her expression freezing when she spied them. Kelsey gave her an obnoxious smile and a shrug as they went by. She could swear she heard the other girl snatch up her phone and start dialing before she and Evan could get out the door.

Outside, the rain had stopped and a sliver of blue struggled to break through the overcast, but the world still glistened with remnant raindrops. Evan held open the door of his sleek black truck for her and she climbed in, so grateful to be back there again. Back in his life the way she wanted to be. Her gaze never left him as he walked around to get in the driver’s side, utterly delectable in his dark gray suit. Hers, finally. For once, she considered herself the luckiest girl on earth.

“I have one question,” she said as he settled himself in the seat and brought the engine to life. “Did you really keep this trip after you and Courtney split up because you wanted to take me? It won’t hurt my feelings if you say no.”

He grinned. “After it all blew over, and I remembered I needed to do something about this trip, you’re the first person who came to mind. You usually are. Think about it, when you called me that day last Christmas to tell me about Todd and Courtney, don’t you remember what I asked you?”

“I don’t remember much. You didn’t say anything for so long I thought you’d hung up.”

“Yeah, but then…?”

The memory unfurled, smoothed out like a crinkled-up piece of paper. Kelsey’s lips curled upward.

Evan! Oh, God, get over here. Get her out of my house.

What? Who?

Todd and Courtney are sleeping together! I just caught them in my bed! Come get this whore out of my house!