Page 71 of Not In Love

Tears clung to her long lashes, and mascara drew dark trails under her eyes. Wordlessly, she clutched at fistfuls of his shirt in her hands and buried her face against his chest.

She cried harder, shoulders shaking violently with the force of it.

Diego held her tighter, his own eyes tearing up. His heart lodging in his throat, he whispered, “It’s okay, baby. Cry if you need to. Or rage at me. But I’m not leaving you, Kash. Ever again.”

* * *

It feltlike an eternity had passed when Kash pulled out of his arms. Not before she made a show of wiping her nose against his shirt, her movements jerky.

When she looked up, her brown eyes full of questions, he grimaced, but held her gaze. Though it was mostly because of the painful throbbing of his ankle.

With a loud, filthy curse, she scooted back from him and looked at the wrap around his ankle. Which couldn’t hide the tennis-ball sized swelling.

Before he could pull in another pained breath, Kash spun around. "Why the hell is he still sitting here?" she shouted, her voice slicing through the stunned silence of the room. "Get the damn car! He needs to be at the ER. Now!"

People scrambled into motion—chairs scraping, keys jangling, voices overlapping in sudden bursts.

When she turned back to face him, Diego tried on a half-smirk. Which was absolutely the last thing to throw at her.

The fury in her face twisted into something even wilder, even more wrecked. She stabbed a shaking finger at him, words bursting out in a helpless, furious roar. "You're a fucking millionaire!" she snapped. "What macho thing are you trying to prove by going up on wobbly ladders? There are people counting on you, Diego. Me and Tia and…me.”

He blinked, still dizzy from pain and the emotional wreckage she was unleashing.

Before he could answer, she whirled on Kaif. "And you cheapskate! Couldn't you hire someone to do it?"

Kaif opened his mouth like he wanted to defend himself. Then, wisely, thought better of it.

Diego watched her, barely breathing. Falling deeper and deeper in love with this untamed, fierce version of her.

Hair wild, chest heaving, hands clenched into fists at her sides, she looked like a furious, gorgeous goddess, come to demand her offerings.

His heart pounded against his ribs, the pain in his ankle a dull roar in the background. As his mind chanted in an endless loop,She loves me.

He needed her to look at him. Needed her to finish what she’d started, before she buried it under panic and logistics and defenses. Even the shooting pain from his ankle would be worth it if it finally broke down the last wall standing between them. He wasn’t going to wait another minute.

"Kash!" he barked, loud enough to break through the chaos. It sounded half-strangled since he was in acute pain. And because, he rarely, if ever, raised his voice.

She froze, spinning back toward him, eyes wide. “Are you in pain? Did anyone give you a painkiller?”

"You can't just go back to your usual tight-lipped-self after losing it like that," he said, his voice cracking around the edges. He swallowed past the gnarly emotion in his throat and tried a different tack. “You can’t ask me to pretend like I didn’t see you lose your shit when you thought I was hurt.”

For a moment, she just stared at him, mouth open, cheeks flushed, hands trembling. “You want to do this now, Ferrara?”

He grinned, thoroughly enjoying the deer-in-headlights expression in her eyes. “Yes, Doc. Now. I’m in a shitload of pain. I need something to make me forget it. A whole lotta something and I want it now.”

One shapely eyebrow rose in her face. “That’s how you want to play this?”

The little bite that came back to her tone made his pain seem like nothing. He loved it so much when she fought him every inch like this. Because then, his victory was a heady thing. “You started this, Kash. Accusing me of cheap tricks, calling me a macho idiot.”

She crossed the room in a few clumsy steps, stumbled, caught herself, and dropped hard onto her knees in front of him again.

His heart roared in his chest, in his ears. “I like being your dirty secret, Kash. But I want more.” It was the hardest thing he’d ever done, to put everything on the line like that. “I have wanted more for a while and I can’t deny myself anymore.”

Her brown eyes glittered as they swept over him. Then without hesitation, without caring that they were surrounded by curious, agape wedding guests, she cupped his jaw in her palms, leaned in, and kissed him.

It was barely a brush of her lips against his, but it shattered him more thoroughly than the fall had. Her forehead pressed against his, the arrogant bridge of her nose nuzzling his. The sheer tenderness in the gesture flooded him like a river washing away the last of his uncertainties.

He needed words too, yes, but touch had always been their first communicator. An airy lightness filled him, his hand shaking as he cupped her shoulder. Still, he restrained himself because he wanted her admission.

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