"She bribed my assistant...and someone fucking died, and all because she wanted us to celebrate our fucking anniversary."
"Oh God." The agony in her voice was real, and it was something he had once wished he could hear from Ilona...but never had.
"I'm so sorry, Doctor. I'm so, so sorry."
She reached for his hand and kissed his knuckles.
"I promise you, I'll never interfere, and I'll a-always...I'll always beproudthat you're doing what you do."
Adam squeezed his eyes shut. She was so damn young, and yet she seemed to know exactly what he was hoping she would say...as the girl who owned his heart.
God.
Adam swallowed hard as the inescapable truth finally hit him.
He loved her.
Even though he had yet to see her face, even though he had yet to know her real name—-
He knew that she was the rose he had asked the heavens for, and that was why he heard himself say, "I'm done with the fantasy—-"
She jerked at his words, but he swiftly pinned her down when she tried to pull away.
"It's not what you think, little thorn."
Her anger disappeared in a blink, and she looked up at him in a mixture of exasperation and amusement instead. "Littlethorn? That's your idea of endearment?"
"It is, yes." Because the moment he had said those words out loud, Adam realized that was exactly what Temptation was, and he wouldn't have her any other way.
His Temptation was a rose on the outside, but her soul was that of a prickly little thorn, and he loved the fact that she could be both.
"You're crazy."
"Crazy for you," he corrected her, "and that's why I want to do away with this whole fantasy business. The next time I meet, I want everything to be real between us."
She didn't answer right away, but Adam soon realized why when he felt her cheek grow wet against his palm.
"I want that, too." And this time, it wasn't just the tears he heard clogging her throat.
This time, he also heard her heart whisper the same words she had cried out earlier.
I love you.
She loved him just as he loved her, and it was this thought that Adam held close to his fucking heart even as he reluctantly forced himself to get moving.
Adam kissed the top of her head one last time before leaving, and while he had intended to talk to her again after his unscheduled operation, life was never what one planned in his line of work.
He had thought they would only be apart for a few hours.
But he was wrong.
****
JOELLE RETRIEVED Aparty horn blower from under the counter when her cousin walked inside his clinic.
"Congratulations, boss!"
The fact that all Adam could do was nod spoke volumes, and she quickly went around her desk to hand him his decaf. "Here you go."