Her cheeks heated, but she refused to break the eye contact. “I changed my mind.”
“Oh?” He crossed his arms and waited.
He wasn’t going to make it easy for her. Why should he?
She put down the shirt she was holding and faced him fully. “Ethan, here’s the deal. I’m not going to let you get tangled up in the horrific, incredible mess that is my family. But” —she took a deep, fortifying breath— “unless you truly want me gone, I’ve decided to stay.” She raised a forestalling hand. “I know what you said earlier, but we were both emotional and upset. I think we’ve had enough time to cool down since then.”
He uncrossed his arms and moved closer. “Kerri, I definitely do not want you gone. You’re right I was upset.” He took another step forward. “But you can’t force me to watch your family hurt you. I don’t give a shit if your grandfather is Barron Sterling, if the man’s richer than the IRS and knows everyone in all the governments in the world. He’s not going to keep hurting you with impunity. He’ll have to go through me first.” He took a final step that brought him so close she could feel his body heat. “But we can’t do this if you’re looking for some manageable guy to have a temporary relationship with. I’m not manageable, and I’m not temporary. And I’m not going to become either just to suit you.”
Her cheeks grew even hotter. How did he know about her “ideal man?”
“If you aren’t okay with all this…” A small muscle ticked in his jaw.
She trembled. This was it. She had to lay it all out, reveal her heart, or go home. Ethan wasn’t going to settle. Frankly, she didn’t want to settle either. She didn’t want a manageable man. She wanted Ethan.
“I’m okay with it,” she said.
His eyes lightened, his shoulders relaxing a bit. “Good.” He put his hands on her arms, and she sighed at how right they felt on her. “You realize, of course, that even if you’d said no it wouldn’t have made a bit of difference.”
She couldn’t quite tell if he was joking or not.
“I’m always going to be a permanent fixture in your life, even if I have to be a pain in the ass to do it.”
“Oh.”
“But since you said okay, I suppose the point is moot.”
“I suppose it is. But why would you want to stick around even if I’d said no?” she asked faintly.
“Because, you crazy woman, I’m in love with you. Why else would any man do what I do?”
“It’s just… When we first decided to stay together, you made it sound like it was all for sex.”
He looked at her like she’d suddenly sprouted flowers out of the top of her head. “No man does what I’ve done just for sex, Kerri. Sex is easy.”
It was for someone like Ethan. Someone as gorgeous and smart and wonderful.
She looked into his eyes. It hurt to breathe, and she took a moment to calm herself. She wanted him to know this wasn’t the heat of the moment compelling her to say what she was about to say. It was all her, clear-headed and heart so full it felt like it would burst. “I love you too.”
A long breath shuddered out of him, and he took her into his arms. “Thank god.”
*
Ethan helped Kerri unpack, this time taking everything out of her suitcases and moving it all to the master bedroom suite.
“It was killing me that you never fully unpacked,” he said.
Kerri stashed her lacy underwear in a drawer. “Well, I didn’t think it was going to last. Figured I’d be gone soon enough, just like all your other ex-girlfr—”
Ethan looked at her. “What is it?”
“Nothing. Don’t worry about it.”
“Kerri. You can say whatever you want. If this is going to work we need to be honest with each other.”
Okay then. “Do you mind telling me why Catherine compared me to Lisa? Am I the opposite or the same?”
She held her breath. When Catherine had visited, Kerri had told herself she had no right to demand anything of Ethan since they were in a temporary relationship. But now things were different. The permanence of their situation gave her the courage to ask for more.