Page 21 of Intrigued By Love

I held her midnight gaze and said, “Yes.”

It wasn’t time to tell her I’d already made the move. Hell, I’d built a fucking house for her.

“And run your empire from here?” She tried to slip away from me, but I trapped her against the granite.

I ignored the way my still-hard cock jumped at the slight brush of her body.

“Yes. There are these things called the Internet, satellites, and airplanes. If you recall, I worked from home most of the time when we lived together.”

“You also have a business building ships. Don’t you have to be at the ports?”

“I have staff that I trust to run production, and outside of any emergencies, I only visit sites quarterly.”

“I don’t want you to give me hope and then take it away. I’d rather go into this without expectations.”

I clenched my jaw. “You’d rather pretend this a casual thing when we both know it’ll always be anything but casual?”

“Yes. I can’t let myself believe otherwise.”

I wanted to be angry, but her vulnerability and honesty hit my heart like a fist. This was going to be a harder battle to win than I thought. No, that was a lie. I knew it was going to kick my ass.

“As I said, try me.”

“What makes you think it’ll work this time when it didn’t before?”

“It would have worked if you hadn’t run away and confronted me instead.” Fuck, why had I said that?

“You’re right.”

Her response shocked the hell out of me. “You admit you shouldn’t have left?”

“No.” Her shoulders slumped. “I admit I shouldn’t have left the way I did. It wasn’t fair to you and to me.”

So she believed leaving me was the right thing. My gut always clenched every time I remembered the moment I realized Kai was gone.

“I won’t argue with you.”

“Jax, are you sure this is worth it? I’m not going back to the States, especially not now. And if I ever do, it’ll be Hawaii.”

“Don’t you think you’re worth it for me to try?”

She closed her eyes and then opened them, indecision, worry, and hope all warring in her irises.

“I’ll give you three weeks, as you proposed in the beginning and then we’ll discuss it after the wedding. I’m not ready to make any long-term plans.”

I wasn’t going to get any more out of her, so I nodded. “Fair enough.”

She licked her lips and glanced at mine.

There goes my cock again.

“Kiss me. We have to seal the deal.”

Setting a hand on her waist and one behind her neck, I drew her to me. Her fingers slid into my hair. Our mouths met. Initially it was soft, feathered kisses, then we let it go more in-depth.

Just as I was about to cup Kai’s breast, a deep throat cleared behind us.

We jumped apart, both breathing hard, and stared at Isaiah Alexander. Instead of the scowl I’d expected at him walking in on me making out with his daughter, he smiled.

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