I start to argue, to confess how empty I’ve felt lately, but he stops me with a finger to my lips.
“Don’t,” he says. “You know it’s true. Union Ten is your calling. Your ‘good work.’ It’s not everything you need to be happy, but it’s a big part of it.”
I swallow, then whisper against his finger, “How did you know?”
His hand drops to his side. “Know what?”
“That I haven’t been happy?”
“Well, I’ve been fucking miserable without you,” he says with a crooked grin. “So I was hoping you might be at least a little down, too. The only thing worse than forbidden love is unrequited love.”
I press my lips together, emotion making the backs of my eyes sting as I ask, “Is that how you tell a girl you’re in love with her, Nickolas Von Bergen?”
“No, I tell her by arranging for a promotion that will keep her safer than fieldwork,” he says, stepping closer. “And by buying her an obscenely expensive painting because the model’s eyes reminded me of hers.”
My jaw drops. “It’s an original?”
“It is.” His fingers curl around the back of my neck beneath my ponytail, making my pulse spike as I gaze up into his eyes. “Consider it an early engagement present.”
I gulp in a breath. “That’s crazy. We can’t get engaged.”
“Why not?” he asks, grinning that smug grin that I’ve come to adore nearly as much as I adore him. “You’re totally into me. I can tell.”
“I am into you.” My laughter turns to a sigh as he draws me even closer, until my breasts brush against his chest, and I’m sizzling everywhere. “But we haven’t even been on a real date. Or spent more than a few days together at a time. We might decide we hate each other.”
His smile widens. “We won’t hate each other. I’m going to make you fall madly in love with me, Alexandra Rochat. By next Christmas, you’ll be begging me to make you my wife.”
I tilt my head back, bringing my lips closer to his as I ask, “Is that a challenge, Dimples?”
“It’s a promise, princess,” he whispers. And then he kisses me, and my laughter becomes another sigh and then a moan as he draws me against him and takes my breath away.
His tongue slips between my lips, stroking mine, retreating and advancing, teasing me until I wrap my arms tight around his neck and demand what I want.
What I need.
Him. All of him. And his kiss—deep and hard, a promise that this is real. That he means every word he just said.
“Yes,” I breathe as his hand slides up my thigh, under the hem of my dress. “Touch me.”
“Don’t you have to meet Sabrina in fifteen minutes?” he asks, his fingers teasing along the elastic of my panties, making my inner walls clench.
“Yes, but think of all the trouble we could get into in fifteen minutes,” I say, squirming in his arms, desperate to get his fingers where I need them.
But he pulls away, taking my upper arms and holding me at a distance. “No. I refuse to think about that.”
My lips turn down hard. “Why not?”
“Because if I think about that and I keep kissing you, I’m going to take you up against the wall.”
I grin, and Nick laughs, releasing me and taking another step back. Pointing a warning finger at my face, he says, “No, bad Alexandra. Our first time isn’t going to be a quickie in your office.”
The words penetrate the lust haze fogging my thoughts.
My office.
“Right, we haven’t finished talking about that either,” I say. “I don’t want you to give up your job because you think it’s the only way to keep me safe.”
“Safer,” he interjects. “You won’t be truly safe until you’re retired, but I can live with the danger of a field office director.”
I prop my hands on my hips. “Well, that’s fine for you, but I don’t know if I can live with taking your job. You love Union Ten, too. I don’t want to rob you of that.”
His gaze softens. “Thanks. But I’m thrilled with my new gig. And honestly, I think I’m getting the better deal here—a chance to help people even more directly than I did with Union Ten, more time to spend with friends and family, and a gorgeous wife who will be perfectly content for me to stay home with the kids when they’re young while she goes back to work.”
Something flutters in my chest, but it isn’t the baby fear I felt every time Gerg talked about starting a family.
It’s something less familiar, but nice. Very nice.
“I might only want one,” I warn Nick, trying to sound stern but grinning so hard I ruin the effect.
“One would be wonderful,” he says, beaming back at me.
“And that’s if we actually end up working out. I’m telling you, there’s a very real chance you might find me unbearable after a while. Most men do.”