Page 90 of The Billionaire's Runaway Bride

I sigh and relax into my seat. It doesn’t matter. We’ll figure it out. With this man, I can figure anything out.

“Lauren, I love you.”

I lean forward as the plane takes off, lifting into the sky. My ears pop, and I swallow before I reply, “I love you, too.” And I kiss him to seal it.

“I want to be with you, sweetheart.”

“For good?” I check.

“Forever, if you’ll let me.”

I grin. That’s exactly what I was hoping for.

“You never have to go home again. I promise.”

I cup his face and sigh. “What if you’re my home?”

He smiles and kisses me again. I fall into the addictive press of his mouth on mine, but as the plane soars higher yet, I break away to ask where we’re going.

“Colorado.” He grins. “We could both use some time to lie low for a while.” He winks at me, and I’m overwhelmed with gratitude that his first idea of escaping would bring us to Marian at the Goldfinch again. Just like the first time, only now, I’d be running there with him, not to him.

“Caleb, I’m sorry.”

He shakes his head. “Don’t be, Lauren. You had to do what you felt was necessary. I’m just glad you reached out before it was too late.”

“No. That’s not—” I sigh, picking through my thoughts for how I can word this. I pat the seat next to me.

He gets up and joins me there on the large, comfortable seat, big enough for two.

I take his hand and hope he won’t be mad when I explain. “I told you that I wanted to go back to Jeremy to protect you.”

He shakes his head and chuckles wryly. “I love you more, knowing that you want to look out for me, but sweetheart, he couldn’t do anything to me.”

“But he could!” I sit up from snuggling against him. “When I called him that morning, I did so to tell him no. That I would never return. But he had looked you up and saw things reporting about your scandals. Your last girlfriend.”

“Fling. I slept with Felicity once. She was just a random quickie. Nothing more.”

“Oh. Well. He showed me screenshots of him texting with her. He somehow got ahold of her on social media. He was concocting a plan to bribe her to lie about you. To have you arrested for drugging her and raping her.”

He rolls his eyes.

I furrow my brow, not sure how he could be so flippant.

“And then he showed me more screenshots of him talking with a friend who knew someone to make an agency investigate you for insurance fraud with your house that burned down.”

He chuckles now. “Wow.”

“See! I couldn’t let him do that to you.”

“It wouldn’t have worked. Felicity admitted to setting that fire. And she’s going to have a hard time convincing anyone that I abused her or took advantage of her when she’s serving her sentence for arson.”

I gawk at him, and he hugs me closer.

“Seriously?”

He quirks a brow at me. “Lauren, I’m not entirely proud to admit this, but I learned from the best. My dad was a partier. He lived his life hard, and my grandfather taught him how to manage his behavior. He tolerated his partying lifestyle, so long as he had a good head on his shoulders and cleaned up his messes.

“My dad raised me the same. I lived life hard and fast, partying as well, but I knew when to stop, when to make sure I wasn’t being reckless. And with that uh, practice, I learned how to always, always cover my bases. As soon as Felicity started up with those accusations and the gossip, I had my lawyer and publicity team on it. That party house won’t be rebuilt, either. I’m done with those partying days.”

---