Page 103 of Her Older Sheikh

If he kissed her just once, he knew it would not end there, and since he couldn't afford to be distracted at the moment, Adam could only sit back down on the bed and gently stroke her hair in the dark.

"I'm sorry I woke you."

"Are you going to leave for work?" she whispered.

"I have to, I'm sorry."

"You don't ever need to apologize for that."

Adam's chest clenched even harder. Every word she uttered rang true, but with all the times he had been fucking burned in the past—-could he really let himself believe this girl whose name he didn't even know?

"There was this woman I used to...date," Adam heard himself say, and he felt her turn absolutely still at his words. "We've been in a relationship for some time, but she never understood...what my work means to me."

His voice turned hollow as he told her the rest of the story.

"She bribed my assistant...and someone fucking died, and all because she wanted us to celebrate our fucking anniversary."

"Oh God." The agony in her voice was real, and it was something he had once wished he could hear from Ilona...but never had.

"I'm so sorry, Doctor. I'm so, so sorry."

She reached for his hand and kissed his knuckles.

"I promise you, I'll never interfere, and I'll a-always...I'll always beproudthat you're doing what you do."

Adam squeezed his eyes shut. She was so damn young, and yet she seemed to know exactly what he was hoping she would say...as the girl who owned his heart.

God.

Adam swallowed hard as the inescapable truth finally hit him.

He loved her.

Even though he had yet to see her face, even though he had yet to know her real name—-

He knew that she was the rose he had asked the heavens for, and that was why he heard himself say, "I'm done with the fantasy—-"

She jerked at his words, but he swiftly pinned her down when she tried to pull away.

"It's not what you think, little thorn."

Her anger disappeared in a blink, and she looked up at him in a mixture of exasperation and amusement instead. "Littlethorn? That's your idea of endearment?"

"It is, yes." Because the moment he had said those words out loud, Adam realized that was exactly what Temptation was, and he wouldn't have her any other way.

His Temptation was a rose on the outside, but her soul was that of a prickly little thorn, and he loved the fact that she could be both.

"You're crazy."

"Crazy for you," he corrected her, "and that's why I want to do away with this whole fantasy business. The next time I meet, I want everything to be real between us."

She didn't answer right away, but Adam soon realized why when he felt her cheek grow wet against his palm.

"I want that, too." And this time, it wasn't just the tears he heard clogging her throat.

This time, he also heard her heart whisper the same words she had cried out earlier.

I love you.

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