Page 111 of The Paris Roommates: Dean
“Wondered what, Jacqueline?” he asked quietly, wishing he could take her hand.
Swallowing, she said, “I want you to know… I would never have used you for the cave. I was—I am—attracted to you. It is all verycompliqué,isn’t it? Because I really do love you.”
His heart was pulsing in his chest as he set Pierre’s cage down on the ground. “I love you too, but no, those weren’t my reasons for not telling you. You didn’t know me very well, and I wasn’t sure if you’d believeIwasn’t using you. Half of my roommates and Nanine agreed that it would be better to wait until we won to tell you. In the beginning…when we first met, I thought you were the one selling the cave.”
She nodded. “After the rage cleared from seeing my sister again—it has been twelve years—I realized you might have had a good reason. I also want to say I’m sorry for this mess, because if it weren’t for me, you would have been able to bid on the cave. Please apologize to Nanine and your roommates for me.”
Heartened that she cared about the people he considered family, he stepped closer to her. “They will appreciate that, I’m sure, as do I. But Jacqueline, while I regret your sister finding out, I do not regret us being together. Being with you has given my life a new purpose, and it’s made me very happy.”
“Me as well.” She took his hands, forming a tenuous connection he felt ping his heart. “I must say this one thing. It was always a pipe dream for me to have the cave, because I didn’t have money for the auction. It was because of you—because I trusted you so quickly—that I thought I might have a chance. Part of me wishes there had never been a cave because then nothing would have come between us.”
He put her hand to his chest. “Then we’re on the same page. Jacqueline, I love you, and I’m sorry I didn’t tell you we’d planned to bid on the cave. I promise you I won’t ever keep anything from you again. Will you give me another chance?”
She leaned until she was resting her head against his chest. “Will you give me one now that you know I can become so enraged and unreasonable?”
Tipping her face up, he framed her face in his hands. The emotion swimming in her eyes had him pressing his cheek to hers. “So we both have things to work on? Who’s perfect anyway? But I’d rather be with you than anything else. I mean it, Jacqueline, from the moment I first saw your photo in the pet store, I knew you were going to change my life. I want you to keep changing it, with me, every day.”
She wrapped her arms around him. “I want that too, Dean. I was so scared I’d lost you.”
He breathed her in, his heart warming in his chest. “That makes two of us.”
He lifted his head, and she was waiting for him. Her lips were soft and urgent over his before she whispered, “I love you.”
He kissed her lower lip as he softly said, “I love you too,” and then he was kissing her for real.
Their arms wrapped around each other, their mouths soothing the last of the hurt between them before turning urgent. They could have lost each other, and they both communicated their joy that they hadn’t as their lips joined and joined yet again. When he slowed things down, kissing her softly, he felt her breath shudder out. Yes, they were both finding their balance again after the torrent of emotion they’d held within them since the meeting with her sister.
“Dean, I’m so happy you texted me.” She tugged on his coat and then touched his jaw, her mouth curving. “I knew it wasn’t only for a visit with Pierre.”
“Caught and happily.” He laid his hands over hers, aware that tourists and bystanders were watching them now after the kiss. “So, are you ready for some more good news?”
Her brow rose. “Better than us getting back together? I cannot imagine such news.”
His grin felt downright terrific. “We won the cave, after all. Half of it is yours if you still want it.”
Her brown eyes flashed to his. “You did? But how? Wh— My sister was so definitive about excluding you.”
He took her shoulders in his hands. “Congratulate yourself, my dear. You are hooked up with one smarthombre.Ah, that’s Spanish for man.”
She sputtered out a laugh. “I know the term and I know you are smart. What did you do?”
He’d leave the whole Napoleon thing out since Jean Luc hadn’t been too hot on it. “I suggested putting in multiple bids through other people. Jacqueline, there was no way I was letting you or anyone else down. Brooke’s father’s bid won.”
She blinked rapidly. “And your friends still agreed to let me buy half?” She flung herself at him. “Oh, Dean, I am so happy I’m crying. I don’t know what to say after everything that’s happened.”
He took that as a cue. “I have something else to say. I told you that I loved you, and I meant it. I also think your business idea and my ‘It’ idea would be dynamite together—heck, Pierre led me to the cave and then to you. Jacqueline, I’d like to suggest a professional partnership as well as the return of our personal partnership if you’ll hear me out.”
He pressed his hand to his diaphragm to tamp down his nerves as he outlined what he had in mind. She didn’t interrupt, and he took it as a good sign when she sniffed a few times as he talked about them combining forces and working together. Then he paused and held his breath, waiting for her response.
“That all sounds so…amazing.” She brushed aside a tear on her cheek. “Dean, I think we will be good together, in love and in business. I promise to do my part.”
He took a step closer and touched her cheek. “I know you will, and so will I.”
Then he heard someone yell in English, “Do the song, you idiot, and show her the shirt.”
He looked up to see Brooke standing with the rest of his roommates on the stairs leading down to the Seine.
“You have a song and a shirt?” Jacqueline asked, caressing the front of his coat. “But I love music, and I have missed your fashion humor.”
