Chapter Nineteen
They pulled up into the driveway to see Duncan waiting for her. Before she could get to the door handle, the door was wrenched open, and she was pulled out.
She caught Ronin’s grin before he said, “I’ll see you at work on Monday, boss.”
“Thank you,” Duncan said gruffly.
“No problem.”
She watched Ronin drive away before she looked up at Duncan. Her stomach twisted at the look of misery on his face. He had ahold of her upper arm with one hand and had her bag in the other. “Let’s get you inside,” he said.
He shut and locked the door and then dragged her into his office and did the same to that door.
She usually loved this room with the shelves of books, the cozy atmosphere, and the smell of leather from the furniture, but at the moment, the tension in the room was so thick you could cut it with a knife.
“We’re going to hash this out before either of us leaves this room,” he said.
He released her, so she walked several steps away and turned to face him. “Why did you want me back, Duncan?”
He slid his fingers through his hair. “Want you back? Are you fucking kidding me? I freaked out when I saw you left. I can’t go through that again, sweetheart. Promise me that you’ll never leave me again.”
“I can’t promise that.”
“Why the hell not?”
“Duncan, if I feel you no longer want to be with me, I’m going to leave.”
“Not want you? Are you fucking crazy?” he yelled. “The last thing I want you to do is to leave, baby. That’s why I’ve been freaking out all week. I thought there was a chance you’d want to go to Ronin.”
“I never felt like that about him.”
“Like what?”
She sucked in a breath. She decided to put everything out there and see what it got her. It wasn’t going to hurt her any more than she was already hurting. “I don’t love him the way I do you.”
She watched him turn rigid, and then all the tension rushed out of him.
“You love me?” he asked.
“Yes, I think I’ve loved you from the first moment I saw you.”
“I love you, too, baby.”
Her breath shuddered in her throat, and her eyes widened in shock. She hadn’t thought that he would say anything about how he felt because he hadn’t so far.
“You love me?” she asked.
“Oh, God, sweetheart. How can you not know that? You’re my world. If you leave, it will destroy me.”
“I don’t want to leave. I thought you didn’t want me anymore.”
“That will never happen. I don’t see a future without you in it. I want us to be a family and eventually have kids.”
Her mouth dropped open. Her dream was to make a family of her own, but she held back, afraid she wasn’t hearing him right. “Are you sure you want kids?”
“Fuck yes. In fact, I’m so sure I want us to fly to Vegas and get married.”
“When?” she asked.