Page 57 of Bewitched

“Paige, you’ve given me nothing over the last four or five weeks. The only time I know for sure that you like me is when we’re in bed together. For all I know, all you’re interested in is my…”

She covered his mouth with her hand. “Don’t say it.” She felt him move his mouth and mumble. She lifted her hand away and let it rest on his chest. “You’re right. I’ve held all my feelings in because I don’t know which ones to let out and which ones to keep in.”

“Why don’t you let them all out and we can deal with them. Stuffing them down is not helping either one of us.”

“When you came to my hospital room in Amaan, I was knocked off my feet. I have never reacted so viscerally to anyone in my life. I wanted to hug you, talk to you, and smooch you all at once. I could’ve sat with you for a hundred hours and just gotten to know you. But none of that seemed possible because of our jobs and life circumstances. I figured I’d never see you again. Then you showed up at my party, and I decided I would take what I could get. At that point, if all I could have was one night, then I was going to enjoy it.” Rubbing her stomach, she shrugged. “Guess I did.”

“What are you saying, Paige?”

“I’m saying I was smitten with you from the moment I saw you, and all the crazy circumstances we’ve found ourselves in haven’t made any of those feelings go away. But it’s hard to decipher what’s what when my world has been turned upside down.”

“So, if we lived in the same place and had regular jobs, you would’ve dated me and we would’ve taken all the regular steps couples do and fallen in love slowly and built a solid foundation and eventually gotten married and had a bunch of kids.”

“Probably.”

Slapping the steering wheel, he shouted, “Hallelujah!”

He was grinning like a madman, and she worried for his sanity. “Not sure what part of that is making you so happy.”

“We just fast-forwarded through all of that and we’re ending up in the same place. It’s out of order and we’re going to have to double back a couple of times, but we’re together, falling in love, making a foundation.”

“Oh…”

“This is a hell of a love story if you think about it. Terrorists kidnap you in Jordan and I come and save you and then we have one fateful night together and somehow against all odds make a baby. Then, after losing track of you, I get my friend to track you down and I come to find you. It’s like Cinderella or one of those other Disney princess movies where the man comes and saves his true love. We’re a freaking amazing love story.”

“I like the first part of it, but you got the Cinderella part completely wrong. And as far as the whole Disney princess thing…half the time the girls are saving themselves as well as other people. The boy doesn’t always save the girl. Girls can save themselves.”

“Totally agree with you, but if I didn’t show up, then who would you kiss? The love story needs two people, and I’m your person. I’m also your warrior prince since I saved you.”

“True, but I’m not down with being the wimpy princess. I want to be a kick-ass princess.”

“Honey, you’re not a princess. You’re a queen. You’re my queen, and you saved me too. A man can’t be a warrior if he has nothing to fight for. A man can’t be a king unless he has a queen to protect. Without you, I’m nothing. You’ve given me a reason for…everything.”

“Now, that’s a fairy tale that I can live with.” Running her hand down his chest, she felt his steady heartbeat. “You are my king, and I promise to keep you at the center of my world.”

“God damn, my heart just exploded.” He leaned over and kept one eye on the road while he pressed a quick kiss to her mouth. “I’m going to come up with a whole fairy tale for us.”

“Never doubted it for a minute,” she said with a ridiculous smile. If there was anyone capable of a fairy tale, it was Lieutenant Commander Blake Carmichael. That was for damn sure.

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