Page 74 of Fierce-Zander

“I think that not only is he pushing us together but he might think we already are. I also feel a bit like a fool that I didn’t realize it.”

“You didn’t have the facts like I do.”

“How long have you suspected this?” she asked.

“We’ve only been dating a few weeks. I’d say maybe after that weekend we had together I realized it was you that they wereworking toward. I wanted to see if you knew anything before I brought it up.”

“Why?” she asked.

“It’s hard. I didn’t want you to be upset. I didn’t want you to think you were being played. But more importantly, I didn’t want you to think I only asked you to dinner because of that.”

“I don’t think those things,” she said. “But why would it matter if I did?”

He ran his hand along her cheek and pushed her hair off her shoulder and then sat down on the bed next to her. “I don’t want to come off like a wuss.”

“You couldn’t possibly,” she said.

“Guys don’t think that way,” he said. “We’ve admitted we’ve had this connection to each other, right?”

“Yes,” she said.

“I look at you and I think, I’m just done.”

Her jaw dropped. “What?”

He let out a laugh. Not really a funny sound though his eyes told a different story. Something that wasn’t humorous and maybe showed...love.

“There is no reason to look anymore. No reason to even think of another woman. I’m with the one that I want. The minute those thoughts popped into my head, I just knew. Done. Done looking. Done thinking.”

“Are you saying you love me?”

“Crazy, huh? It’s only been a few weeks, but I’m not sure what else this could be. What I felt about the flowers and then what you did tonight. Both of them pissed me off. Normally I wouldn’t get that worked up.”

“But you did and are because you care?” she asked.

“More than care. And if you don’t feel the same way, I understand. It’s another reason I had to talk to you about the Fierces. I didn’t want there to be this secret. No secrets otherthan work. As we both know, we are bound by that unless you’re helping me on a case.”

She’d actually talked to him about this when they worked out the Sophia case. She signed a confidentiality contract with any cases she helped with him since they were dating and she seemed to be privy to helping him during a few.

“We are,” she said. He was looking at her, waiting for her to say something. She knew what she had to say too. “I’ve been doing things with you I’ve never done before too. I can only come to one conclusion.”

“What’s that?” he asked.

“I think I’m done too.”

He burst out laughing and hugged her close. “What do you think, kind of an odd way to express ourselves, isn’t it?”

“It doesn’t surprise me,” she said. “I’ve always been a little bit odd, but you don’t see that part of me.”

“I don’t,” he said. “I just see the woman that captured my heart.”

“I see the man that did the same. I should tell you I love you too.”

“You didn’t have to if you didn’t want to.”

“But I did,” she said.

“Do you want me to stay tonight? I can leave early to go home and change.”

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