Page 205 of Fiery Romance

My eyes whip to his. “What?”

“She accepted that other guy’s proposal, didn’t she?” His eyes glint with a personal pain. “Women are good at saying one thing and doing another.”

“You’re wrong. She’s not engaged,” a new voice says.

We both spin and watch as Rosie walks toward us.

The social worker gives me a solemn look. “Island only accepted Taz’s proposal that night to keep from embarrassing him.”

“What?” I pale.

“She’s kind like that,” Rosie says, sadness stealing into her expression. “Considerate. She’d rather turn him down in private, even if he hijacked her night and asked her to marry him in public.”

Urgency pounds in my chest.

“I have to find her,” I growl.

“Where are you going?” Cody yells at my back. “Clay, it’s raining! At least take an umbrella.”

I ignore him and shoot down the stairs, bursting outside. The rain is picking up now, plunking against the roof of the courthouse like a frantic percussion. I barely feel it soaking my shirt and hair.

My eyes are searching through the parking lot to find Island’s car. My phone is at my ear. I’m waiting on pins and needles while the line rings.

Finally, there’s a click.

“Clay?” Island’s sweet voice breezes over the line.

My name coming from her lips undoes me.

“Woman,” I growl, “where are you?”

She lets out a breath. “I’m right…” I hear the scrape of heels on cement and then her voice wafts to me from both the cell phone and close by. “Here.”

I whip around, my eyes grabbing hold of her like a grenade about to detonate.

She’s sunshine.

She’s pure light.

She’s everything.

The night Island got engaged to someone else, I’d felt numb and conflicted, like my entire world had just crashed around me. Darrel talked me down and convinced me to let Island be happy with someone else, but that numbness never went away. It stayed right there, a frozen cast over me. Keeping me in place. Binding my hands and feet.

“So impatient.” She stomps forward, her bright yellow heels splashing in a puddle. Dark fingers curve around the handle of an umbrella. “You couldn’t even wait for me to come back with coffee for all of you?” As she talks, she hefts a tray of coffee cups closer to her side. Island stops close in front of me and swings the umbrella over my head. “You had to bark at me over the phone and stand in the rain like an abandoned pup—”

I cradle her face and pull her into me. The coffee scatters at her feet, bouncing against the steps and mixing with the rain. The umbrella teeters too, allowing hard rain drops to plop on both of our heads. I barely feel the cold, the dampness of my clothes, the stares of the people making their way into court.

My soul shudders and heaves, frantically twining with hers.

Home.

Island’s lips yank me straight into eternity. I tilt my head to deepen the kiss and she responds passionately, mouth soft and pliant.

I missed this. The beat of her pulse. The heat of her hands on the back of my neck.

She’s mine.

There’s no doubt.

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