I clenched my eyes shut. “Who told you?”
He chuckled. “You do realize our friends are all married to each other?”
Damn them, though I wasn’t really mad. He would’ve found out eventually.
“But it was actually Coach who came to talk to me.”
I snapped my eyes up to his. “What? Why?”
“He needed to confirm some things with me.”
“What things?”
“He wanted to be certain I wouldn’t fuck up my career,” he said, and I tilted my head at him.
He inched his lips toward mine, pressing me with a soft, too-quick kiss that stole my breath.
“Bentley,” I said, the ache in my voice too evident. I tried to step back, but he placed his hand on my hip, gently keeping me there. “We can’t. We both know it. And I’m okay. I’ll figure this out. I won’t risk your position, not when you’ve worked so hard to earn it.” I sighed. “We both know if I stay we won’t be able to keep away from each other. But just because I’m transferring doesn’t mean you had to do this, had to pay for this.” I motioned behind me, guilt bubbling in my chest.
Guilt because I wanted to take it but knew I couldn’t.
It was too much. All of it.
My heart filling in my chest at his touch, his scent.
Breaking all over again because I knew I couldn’t have him.
“I didn’t pay for this because you asked for a transfer,” he said, running his fingers down my arm, warm chills shuttered my skin, spinning my senses. “I did it because your mom deserves the best, as do you.”
“I can’t let you—”
“You can,” he cut me off before he dropped to his knees before me.
I choked on air as he pulled out a small black velvet box.
“You can,” he continued. “Because you’re my world. And what’s mine has always been yours.” He opened the lid, a single diamond ring shining from its center.
I gaped at him, my hands flying to my mouth.
“I’ve loved you since the first moment I saw you, Chloe. I fell harder for you as we grew older, and I’m still so deeply in love with you that I can’t think straight when you’re not near me.”
I couldn’t breathe—the past and present and a possibility of a future swirling together, shaking my world.
“What about the transfer? I don’t know where I’m going, Bent.” I hated that my mind went to the logical complications instead of simply screaming what my heart said.
“I know where you’re going,” he said, still looking up at me with those eyes that could cut right to my soul. “To my house . . . unless you want to build a new one. I don’t care. As long as you’re with me.” He smirked. “And Coach knows. He wants you to stay.”
I gasped.
“No secrets. All on the level. You and me, Chloe.”
“Yes,” I said, crying as I threw my arms around his neck.
He caught me against him, a laugh ringing from his throat.
“Say that again,” he demanded, lifting us to standing.
“Yes, Bentley Rogers. I’ll marry you.”
He slanted his mouth over mine, kissing me in that all-consuming way that I felt right down to my toes. I hooked my legs around his hips, not caring that we were in the middle of the care facility. I’d waited my whole life for this moment, and I was powerless against the onslaught of joy and passion that crashed through my soul.
“Here,” he said, sliding the white-gold band on my left-hand ring finger.
“It’s perfect, Bentley,” I said, kissing him again. “But, we have so much to talk about . . . so many things you need to understand.”
I pressed my forehead against his as he held me to him, hating that I had to say those words, but knowing he didn’t fully understand my past. He likely had so many unanswered questions about last night, about Archer, and I wasn’t sure if those answers would change his mind or not.
“If you’re talking about that asshole, then I know everything,” he said, reading my thoughts. He looked slightly mischievous as he grinned. “He won’t contact you again, though you’d already made sure of that by the time I got there again last night.”
My lips parted open, but he kept talking.
“Gage filled me in this morning. And Chloe, baby, I’m so fucking sorry you went through that. I promise every day for the rest of our lives I’ll take great pleasure in erasing that darkness from you. Taking it on as my own. Being whatever you need to help you heal.”
Tears streamed down my cheeks.
“Does it change this?” I asked, gesturing to my ring. “Knowing I kept it all from you.”
He shook his head, his eyes locking with mine. “I know the only thing I’ve ever needed to know.”
“And what is that?” I whispered, trembling in his embrace, with hope, with fear, with doubt.
“My heart beats for yours.”
The words rang through my soul, a wave of love so deep and raw and pure crashing over the doubts and worries and fears. Cleansing them until there was nothing left but the glow of love I had for this man.
Words failed me, so I kissed him until we were both breathless.
Until we were both healing the past and the present and soaring toward a future that sparkled with possibility.
Epilogue
Three Months Later
Bentley
I’d never been so happy about a bye week.
The games had been amazing with Chloe cheering at each one, but grueling in the physical exhaustion it placed on my body.
I was beyond ready for a little down time with my fiancée.
Fuck, it never got old to think that.
Mine.
The notion pulsed inside me as I came home—after picking up a little surprise for Chloe I’d had in the works for six weeks.
“Honey, I’m home,” I teased as I came through the door.
Chloe had moved in right after I proposed to her, but I was still ecstatic every time I found her there.
A gift of my own, the love of my life . . . finally, truly, mine.
“I never get tired of hearing that,” Chloe called from wherever she was in the living room.
The little ball of fur—my present—wiggled in my hands where I cradled it against my chest.
“Close your eyes,” I called back.
“Why?” she asked, her tone suddenly warry.
“Just trust me,” I said, halting my steps. “Are they closed?”
“Yes, sir,” she teased, but the taunt tightened something hot in my core.
I shifted, taking quick steps into the living room before the thing gave me away and started whimpering.
Chloe sat on the chaise with her eyes closed, looking sexy as hell in a pair of cotton shorts and white tank. My favorite chaise because it was the first place I’d slipped inside her after a decade of waiting. We’d christened almost every room in the house, our lust for each other never slaked.
Ten years of absence to make up for.
A lifetime wouldn’t be enough.
But we had it. The time. The opportunity.
The universe had finally granted us this gift, and I was determined to never waste a second of it.
“Can I open them yet?” she asked.
“Just a second,” I said, bending at the knees to set the puppy in her lap.
Her eyes snapped open, falling on the white ball of fur in her lap—whiskey colored spots on her back.
“A bulldog?” she gasped, tears instantly filling her eyes.
“Don’t cry, baby,” I chided, laughing as the puppy sniffed and whimpered as it climbed up her neck to lick her.
“I can’t help it, she’s so cute.” She lifted the little thing that almost resembled a baby pig, double checking that it was, in fact, a girl. “You remembered,” she said, glancing at me as she hugged the puppy.
“I remember everything,” I said.
She wanted English bulldogs—two of them.
And then four k
ids.
One step at a time.