Page 43 of Dating the Don

It will be simple enough.

At the end of the day, I just want her to be happy. No matter what that looks like.

“There’s just one problem that I keep coming back to. No matter how many different ways I look at it, it just keeps becoming an issue,” Maeve sighs. She lifts her chin to look at me, and I’m transfixed.

“Whatever it is, I can fix it,” I answer easily.

“I don’t think you can. You see, the problem, Cristiano, is that I love you too,” Maeve smiles softly. It’s such an unguarded, open expression that it nearly takes my breath away. My heart lurches in my chest as if fearing that somehow I didn’t actually hear her properly. Am I dreaming?

No, she’s here. Warm and solid in my arms.

“Blech,” Al says from the front seat, breaking the tension between us. I laugh and push the button to raise the partition between us.

I hook a finger under her chin and lift her face to meet mine. It’s just about the only movement I’m currently capable of without feeling pain. Sensing this, Maeve sits upright so that I can kiss her deeply, savoring the taste of her on my tongue. She’s always been sweet but this? Knowing that she’s fully and totally mine? It’s intoxicating.

She pulls away for only a moment as the car starts to slow again.

“But don’t think that this will get you out of properly apologizing to me,” she says.

I smirk. “Oh, once I’m all stitched up, I will happily dedicate as much time to apologizing to you as you desire. I can even think of a few more creative ways to earn your forgiveness, if you want.”

“Mmm, I think I remember a promise about you being on your knees?” Maeve teases as her finger trails down the center of my chest.

“I can do that.”

“I’m still here, you know…” Al protests from the driver’s seat, but I choose to ignore him.

“You know what else you can do while you’re down there?” She asks before kissing me softly again. If she doesn’t stop teasing me, things back here are going to get a hell of a lot messier very quickly.

“What’s that?” Though, I have a good idea of a few things that she might like. Things I’m more than happy to do.

“Propose to me properly… for real this time.”

That’s not one of the things that I would have guessed.

“Really?” I ask, not sure if I heard her correctly.

She nods. “That’s right.”

I think my heart might be too full. I never thought that she wouldactuallywant to marry me. In all of the years that I’ve known her, I can’t think of any other woman who has even been able to hold a candle to her. For me, it’s always only been Maeve. If she’s choosing to give me the chance to prove that to her? I will spend the rest of my life happily making sure that she knows just how deeply I love her. All of her. In every way that a man can love a woman.

“Then when you’re done, you can do all of those other things that you were thinking of,” Maeve winks cheekily at me. “When you’re all patched up, that is.”

She tenderly probes at the sore spot on my side where she shot me to further prove her point. I laugh and swat her hand away. “It’s going to take more than a little flesh wound to keep me down, you know. But don’t go getting any ideas.”

She shrugs and grins. “Well, I guess you’ve learned not to underestimate me, at the very least.”

I kiss her again. “And when you’re my wife, you’ll have plenty of opportunities for me to prove that to you, too.”

“Mm, I like the sound of that.” She reaches up to cup my face and kiss me again. “Say it again.”

“My wife?” I laugh softly. “Forever. You’ll be my wife, Maeve. I love you.”

It’s so liberating to finally say it out loud.

“I love you, too, Cristiano.”

EPILOGUE

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