Page 58 of On His Knees

As if those words were all the encouragement he needed, he steps up to me, opens my legs to stand between them. I glance up at him, take in the scruff on his cheeks. When was the last time he shaved?

“I’m miserable without you, Summer. I can’t sleep, I can’t eat. I can’t work. All I can do is walk through the streets like this, so I can let all of Manhattan know I’m the biggest ass in the world. Please forgive me.”

“You’re not like those boys from my childhood, Tate. You’re admirable, kind, sweet and protective. I apologize for saying you were no better than them, because you are. Your grandfather set you up, and I plan to have words with him about that. But you were doing what you thought you had to do to protect your family. James went about this matchmaking the wrong way, and you went about everything the wrong way with me—well, maybe not everything—but I understand why you did what you did.”

“I’m in love with you, Summer. Lost in you.”

My heart soars, and my throat grows so tight it’s hard to speak. “I’m in love with you, too, Tate.”

He exhales heavily and I catch mint and coffee on his breath as he cups my face and presses a hungry, needy kiss to my mouth. “Can we start over?”

I nod, and grab a tissue to dab at my eyes.

He holds his hand out. “I’m Tate Carson, my granddad is a sly son of a bitch matchmaker, and he set me up with the most beautiful woman in the world, a woman perfect in every way. A woman I plan to worship from the top of her head to the tips of her toes every single day if she’ll let me.”

I sniff. “I’m Summer Love. I’m James Carson’s doctor, and that sly old matchmaker is going to get an earful from me, and then a big thank-you.”

Tate wraps his arms around me, lifts me clear off the desk and spins me. His lips find mine and he kisses me long and hard, and with such passion and love my heart fills with a kind of joy I’ve never felt before. Dad would have liked this one. I know he’s up there smiling down at us now. Tears slide down my cheek, and when Tate sets me down, I’m light-headed, but I think it’s more from the barrage of emotions swirling around my heart.

“Just so you know, Granddad wasn’t kidding when he said he wanted to sign over half of his Manhattan estate to you.”

I put my hand on his chest. “No, Tate. I can make it on my own in this world. I don’t want his money or yours.”

“I know that and that is just one of the many things I love about you. But in this case, you have no say. He’s doing it as a wedding gift.”

I crinkle my nose. “A wedding gift?”

Tate drops to one knee, pulls out a velvet box and opens it to showcases the biggest diamond ring I’ve ever seen. “I haven’t known you for very long, Summer, yet I feel like I’ve known you my whole life. I love your kindness, your generosity, your humility and compassion. I love everything about you.” He grins up at me. “And I love all those things about you more when you’re naked for me.” That pulls a chuckle from me. “Will you make me the happiest man in the world and marry me?”

As I glance at Tate, one knee on the floor, dressed in that silly costume as he proposes to me, I’m not sure whether to laugh or cry. “No,” I say, and Tate falters, the sadness in his eyes like a knife to my heart.

“Summer?”

“I just mean no, not like this. I can’t tell our children that you proposed to me in a donkey costume, now can I?”

He lets loose a relieved laugh. “So the answer is yes.”

“Yes, Tate. Yes, a million times over.”

He slides the ring onto my finger. “And yeah, you can tell this story to the kids, if it’ll keep them from making an ass of themselves when they grow up.”

“I like your ass.” I reach around him and grab a handful of donkey tail.

He touches my chin, his face serious. “Tomorrow night, we’ll get dressed up, and I’ll take you somewhere nice to celebrate.”

“Speaking of clothes, let’s get you out of this costume and into something else.”

“Shit, I didn’t bring clothes.”

“That’s okay,” I say, grabbing a fistful of his costume and dragging him into the examination room. I shut the door, locking the world out and us in. “Because right now, the only thing I want you to get into...is me.”

The blue in his eyes deepens, and his nostrils flare.

“Please...” I murmur quietly, as I settle myself on the examination table.

And just like that, Tate Carson, my sexy fiancé, has once again been taken to his knees.

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