He didn’t stop, though.

“I suppose I’m going to have to examine my feelings and all that shit,” he said with obvious distaste. “To make sure I don’t hurt you again. And it’ll be worth it, because I love you. Even if you just stand there staring at me forever instead of saying something.” He offered a smile that was more like a wince, his hand cradling her face, the warmth of his body pressed close to hers. He was perfect. He was just overwhelmingly perfect and she couldn’t even choke out the words to tell him so.

But she was going to try.

* * *

When Eve finally opened her mouth, Jacob’s hope swelled. But the only sound she produced was another astonished sob, so he went back to slowly dying.

On the plus side, she was letting him touch her—and she’d mentioned coming back to Skybriar for him, which was good. That was fucking excellent. On the negative side, he’d accidentally admitted the whole love thing, which might be a bit soon, so she could be changing her mind about coming back and considering filing a restraining order instead.

Regardless, hiding his feelings hadn’t worked too well for him last time, so this time, he’d keep going with the truth. “My heart seems to be throwing some kind of fit, and seeing you cry isn’t helping the matter, so if you could at least tell me how to make you stop . . .”

She didn’t tell him jack, but she did dry her eyes with her hands and smile. If anything, that made his heart situation worse.

Then she blurted out, “You are so brave and you are absolutely beautiful and I’m so happy you’re here, and anyone who doesn’t want you as much as you want them is a fucking donut, Jacob, because you are just the most wantable man on planet Earth.”

He blinked slowly, his pulse thudding in his ears. His eyes were stinging a little bit. Shit. God. He swallowed hard.

Then the opening notes of Corinne Bailey Rae’s “Breathless” sparkled in the background, and they both turned to look at Jacob’s car. Tessa gave them a thumbs-up from the driver’s seat before pointing at the stereo.

“What an excellent song choice,” Eve said.

Though Jacob privately agreed, he muttered, “That woman is a menace.”

Eve smiled. “You’re very sexy when you’re grumpy.”

Just like that, the last of his nerves dissolved. “Eve,” he laughed shakily, letting his head fall forward until their noses bumped together. “Please. I’m trying to keep things romantic here.”

“That was romantic,” she argued. “Pointing out your hotness counts as romantic if I also love you while I do it.”

She said it so casually, sprinkled it into her stream of smiling words. Almost as if she knew that saying it outright might short all his circuits.

“You . . . do?” he asked haltingly, his mind approaching the concept with care, taking a cautious examination. Even if what he really wanted was to jump on her words without hesitation, old habits died hard. “Love me, I mean. You . . .”