Kept (32 page)

Derek could put up with a few pictures if it meant he got all the other stuff. He turned Alyssa so her back was to the cameras and grabbed her ass so they’d have something good to shoot. As he kissed her, he could see the headline:
PASSIONATE REUNION FOR HEIRESS AND BODYGUARD BOY TOY
.

Danny and Ethan would have a ball giving him all kinds of hell, but he didn’t care. He’d put up with a lot of shit to have it this good.

He let her down long enough to slip the driver a tip and grab her bag to take it to the door of the house they’d moved into right after Alyssa got out of the hospital. She couldn’t go back to the Victorian for obvious reasons, and though it was secure, Derek’s place wasn’t private enough. So they’d moved into this three-bedroom ranch house, the key selling point that it was surrounded by a fifteen-foot
wall and an iron gate sturdy enough to keep out unwanted visitors.

He closed and locked the door and followed her into the kitchen. “I missed you,” he said, kissing her hard as he ran his hands over every inch of her, assuring himself she was okay. She’d texted or called him several times a day to let him know she was safe, sent pictures of herself grinning as she held Marie Laure’s sleeping son in her arms, but he still needed to reassure himself she was here, in his arms, safe.

“I can feel how much you missed me,” she said, cradling his erection between her thighs as he lifted her onto the kitchen table. She ran her hand down his side, coasted it over his hip, pausing at the bulge in his pocket. “What’s that?”

His hand froze on her back for a split second. “Nothing.”

She frowned and eyed him with mock suspicion and dug her fingers into his pocket.

He tried to squirm away, but it was too late, she’d already extracted the black velvet box from the front pocket of his jeans. He’d picked it up earlier that morning and had meant to put it away.

Alyssa’s head cocked to the side, and she raised one eyebrow. “Is this…?”

“I was going to wait to give it to you later.”

“When later?” Her pink lips quirked to the side, and with her new short haircut, she looked like a mischievous elf.

“I don’t know.” He scrambled for words, wishing he had some slick comeback at the ready. “A special occasion.”
When I was sure what your answer would be.

Yeah, he knew she loved him because she told him all the time and showed him in dozens of little ways he would have never imagined he would have appreciated, but that didn’t
mean he was ready to bet the farm and let his ass hang out to be kicked.

She handed the box back, straightened her shoulders, and looked at him expectantly.

“You know, this isn’t exactly how I expected this to go.”

“I bet you never expected you’d be living with me and buying me jewelry either,” she said. She looked pointedly at the box and smiled up at him.

He felt his mouth pull into an answering smile. He could feel the warmth radiating from her, his own private sun.

He knew damn well what her answer would be.

Derek flicked the box open. She gasped, her eyes widening when she saw the two-karat square-cut emerald set in a platinum band.

“It’s gorgeous,” she breathed.

“Yeah, I figured a diamond would be inappropriate. And besides, this matches your eyes.”

Her eyes were wet with tears when they lifted to his, and he felt an answering tightness in his throat.
For fuck’s sake. For thirty-two years you’re the iceman, and now she’s got you crying like a girl.

Derek wished he’d had more time to prepare himself, to plan some elaborate speech that would tell her how she made him feel, how she’d brought him to life, how much he worshipped the ground under the soles of her size-six feet.

But right now, with her staring him in the face, her heart in her eyes, all he could choke out was, “I love you. Please marry me.”

She hurled herself at him, squealing and crying as her arms and legs wrapped around him and pulled him close.

“I’ll take that as a yes?”

“Yes”—both a sob and a laugh. She covered his face in kisses as he carried her down the hall.

“Good. Now let’s seal the deal and make it official.”

He had them naked in seconds, ignoring her protest that she was grubby from the plane. “We’ll shower after,” he said, his breath speeding up like it always did at the sight of her, naked and hot for him on their bed.

Their bed.
Where they would sleep and make love and make their babies when the time was right.

He closed his eyes to cover the burn of tears as he fit himself against her, slid into the slick heat of her body.

She arched to take him deep, having no shame about her own emotions as tears leaked from her eyes and her breath came in little sobs. He barely got inside her before she came, shaking around him.

He was right behind her, coming with a speed and intensity that would have been embarrassing if she hadn’t been even quicker on the trigger.

“I love you so much,” Alyssa whispered. “You have no idea how much.” She stroked his back, holding him on top of her, inside her, when he would have rolled aside. “You’re never going to leave me, are you? Promise you won’t stop loving me.” He could still see it, the fear of rejection, the fear she’d given her love to someone who was going to use it all up and throw it back in her face.

Derek understood. And he would make it his mission to wipe that fear from her eyes, even if it took the rest of his life. “I promise. I’ve got you now, and I’m never going to let you go.”