“You’re right. It isn’t. It’s sexy as hell. Now where were we? Right. You leaving because of what you think I want.”

She wrinkled her nose at him. “What you said you wanted.”

He settled beside her on the bed, easing his ass next to her thigh, forcing her to move over and make room for him to sit. “I was wrong.”

Her eyes opened wide.

“You’d better savor those words, because I can’t promise you’ll ever hear them again.”

She coughed, clearly covering a laugh. “Wrong about what, exactly?”

He leaned close, cupping her face in his hand. “Wrong to think that if I ended things with you, it would be easier. Tonight, even before Colton grabbed you, I realized that I love you.”

She gasped. “You do?”

He placed his fingers over her lips. “My turn, remember?”

She nodded and leaned into him. “Go on.”

“I discovered that what we shared, living together, spending hours together and not getting on each other’s nerves, counting on each other, was special. It was the very thing I’d been running away from most of my life. And the only reason I was able to accept that Levi would want me to live my life, that I could open myself up to love, was because I found you.”

“You love me?” she asked, her shock so real it hurt him to hear.

“Yeah. And I’m seeing that I’ve done a pretty shitty job of showing you.”

She shook her head. “No. You’ve shown me every day. It’s just that you were so sure you didn’t want the same things that I do, and I need to know we’re on the same page.”

He narrowed his gaze. “How so?”

“I want it all, Jason. A house, babies, a dog, my job, your job, us coming home to each other at the end of the day. But you said you don’t want kids. And…”

“Shit,” he said more to himself than to her.

“What?”

He drew a deep breath. “I was wrong. Again.” To his surprise, he could look down the road and see all those things his family had, and he desired them for himself. “I want it all, too. I want kids, sweetness. And a house. I’ll even take a white picket fence, as long as it’s with you.”

A tear fell from her eye and he wiped it away with his finger. “I never want you to cry because of me.”

“It’s relief. When I pulled out that suitcase, I really thought I was leaving. I promised myself I wasn’t going to tell you how I felt, that I would make it easy for you, but I couldn’t go without you knowing how much I love you.”

“You’re brave and strong … and you’re mine.” He picked up the ice pack and placed it onto the nightstand. “Now I’m going to make love to you and show you how I seal the deal.”

He slowly and carefully stripped her of her clothes until she lay naked on the bed, her damp hair a golden halo around her head. She watched him with wide eyes as he undressed himself, her gaze coming to rest on his thick, straining cock.