Page 100 of Doing It for Love

He nods.

“And promise that we’ll have fun?”

He nods again, this time with a smile so devastatingly handsome and beautiful, it chases all my nerves away, making them take flight into somewhere in the darkness above us.

“Then you don’t have to be scared either.”

Chapter 32

“Oh, shoot,” Landon says, pushing me to the side when we get through our apartment door.

“Ouch, geez!” I say, catching myself on the card table. So much for the romantic Landon I was with twenty minutes ago.

“Sorry,” he says over his shoulder, “but shit, she wasn’t supposed to drop it off yet.”

“Drop wha—” I stop and furrow my brow at the long white garment bag Landon’s trying—and failing—to hide behind his back. “Is that my dress? Landon! You’re not supposed to look at it!”

“I didn’t. I just picked it up—”

“From the dress place? I didn’t even know you knew where it was.”

“Actually…” he says, swinging it out from behind his back. “It was at Gina’s.”

“Gina…?”

“The costume designer forThe Walking Stiff.”

“Wha…”

“You said it didn’t fit, right? And the alterations cost a fortune, so I got it from the dress place and—”

“Wait. This is THE dress.” I scurry over, not really worried about him seeing it anymore as I push the zipper down. And there it is. My dress. My gorgeous, too expensive, yet makes my ass look perfect dress.

“What about the other…?”

“I took it off hold for you,” Landon says, and I look up to him covering his eyes with one hand. “Gina did the alterations as a wedding present. She wants to make sure it fits, so you might wanna—”

“You asked for help.”

“Yeah.”

He drops his hand, keeping his eyes closed as he feels around for the zipper on the bag. I help him out, covering the dress, and then prod his face when it’s safe.

“You hate asking for help,” I say in an incredulous whisper. His lip quirks up in the corner.

“But I love you.”

I meet his eyes, heart drumming a tune that you’d play on Valentine’s Day, and it clicks, like someone’s finally turned on the light in the middle of this engagement horror movie, and…it’s not scary anymore. It’s so much more than the ring on my finger, the setting of dates, the buying of dresses, the sending of invitations. More than trying to rekindle something that I thought was lost, but it wasn’t lost, it’s just more now.

It’s about dealing with all the crap and still finding reasons to stick around.

“Theresa!” I shout, scaring him back a few steps. We’re met with silence, and thank the romance gods we’re alone.

“I’m going to kiss you,” I tell him when neither Alec nor Theresa makes an appearance.

He grins. “Good.”

I push the dress from his hands and swing my arms around his shoulders. He pulls me up, matching my intensity, lips and tongues mating like they haven’t in months. Warmth rushes everywhere, through my chest, arms, neck, lower abdomen, and I don’t want it to stop. I’m not going to stop it this time. I lose. I give in. Two days before the wedding, and I don’t care. I don’t think he does either, because I’m against the wall, he’s getting more aggressive, biting, breathing, kissing

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