She nods with a weak smile. “I’m good.”
He releases her and I make introductions to Griff and Bebe. When my dad shakes Bebe’s hand, he says, “I have rooms for you and Jess right beside each other upstairs, and they share a bathroom.”
“Whoa, wait a minute,” Bebe exclaims, looking to Griff, then to me, then back to Griff. “I’m here to work. I’m going with you back to the FBI office.”
“You’re not,” Griff says tightly. “You’re staying here, and those are Kynan’s orders.”
Bebe’s face turns red, and she lights into Griff. There are some curse words, some stomping, and my dad gracefully extricates himself from the room muttering, “I’ll be in my office, Dozer, when you want to talk.”
Taking Jess by the elbow, I lead her to the solarium that angles off the side of the outdoor patio and pool. Jess pulls away from me, moving to the patio door.
“Don’t go out there,” I say, and she glances back at me in surprise.
“Why not?”
“Because it’s too dangerous. Until I can get you safely back to Pittsburgh, you’re staying indoors.”
“Trading one prison for another,” she says in exasperation, holding out her arms.
“No one to blame but yourself,” I retort, the anger welling up again. “You are not welcome here, but since you came and I can’t have you disrupting anything, you’re going to stay here inside my dad’s house, and I don’t want to hear another word about it.”
“Are you always going to be this high-handed?” she demands, popping out a hip. I try to hold on to my fury, but fuck if she doesn’t look cute doing that.
I refuse to let her charm me. Instead, I succumb to the stress and exhaustion I’ve been under from leaving her behind—and for what faces me in the future.
“Why did you come, Jess?” I ask, my voice tired. “You know there’s nothing you can do here.”
“Maybe not,” she replies, moving closer. “But I feel better being in proximity to you. I might not see you after you leave here today, but I feel better here than in Pittsburgh.”
“You put yourself in danger just to be close to me?” My tone reflects how foolish I think this is.
“Yes,” she exclaims, her chin lifted defiantly. “And also… because… I let you leave without telling you some important things.”
It would be easy enough for me to slap her with a sarcastic reply of “You know, there’s this nifty invention called a telephone,” but I’m also smart enough to know that whatever possessed her to come here probably isn’t meant for a phone call.
My anger dissipates.
Reaching for her, I wrap my arms around her waist and pull her into me. “What did you want to tell me?”
Her head tips back, eyes focused intently on mine. “I want to tell you all the important things I haven’t said yet. I should’ve never let you leave without me saying them.”
I can read the underlying message. She’s feeling pressed to tell me things on the off chance I don’t make it out of this. I don’t take that as a lack of faith in me but rather her loss of control over this situation.
“You know I love you,” she begins, and waits for me to nod. “Well, it’s deeper than that. I need you in my life, Dozer. Now that I can be free with my feelings, my life won’t be complete without you. So when you’re done taking Ivan down, I want you to know that I’m all in. I want to marry you, and I want us to give Thea little brothers and sisters, and I want to do life with you in every possible way. I want to wake up to your face every morning, and go to sleep with the memory of your kiss on my lips every night. I want you to be Thea’s father and not her uncle. I want you to adopt her. I want to grow old and wrinkly together, and I want us to leave a legacy for our children and their children.”
Every word that comes out of her mouth fills me as if I were a balloon just waiting for air to become the thing it’s supposed to be. She’s saying all the right words… marriage, kids, togetherness.
She’s talking about the type of commitment I’ve dreamed about for what seems like forever.
There’s nothing for me to do but kiss her, and I do with all the love, passion, yearning, and hope within me. Her arms go around my neck, and we cling to each other in desperation because everything we ever wanted is right here for us to take.
If we can just get rid of Borovsky.
Lifting my mouth, I lean my forehead against hers and close my eyes. “Everything you said, I feel the same. I love you, JJ.”
Pulling back slightly, I give her a chastising look. “But when it comes to marriage, how about you wait for me to propose?”