Page 50 of Beyond Question

I stand and walk around the desk, spinning her chair to face me as I kneel in front of her. I’ve gone without touching Paige long enough.

Taking both of her hands in mine, I tell her the truth. “I told you once that nothing you’ve done before me matters. I meant that, Paige. Your past, whatever it looks like, whatever makes you run…” I pause when her lip quivers. It takes everything in me not to scoop her into my arms and hold her. The desire to protect her from whatever this unknown thing is in her past is fierce and makes my muscles tense. “Everything you’ve done has brought you here, to this moment. And everything I’ve done brought me to you.”

Her blue eyes appear even paler when they glisten with tears, and it kills me that anything I’ve said could bring that wetness into her eyes. I rise to my feet and pull her up with me, then wrap my arms around her and tuck her close against my chest.

I want to kiss her.

Hell, I want to do so much more than kiss.

But right now, I think she needs this more. My strength.

And my resolve.

She’s afraid, so I won’t be. Even though anything outside of aone-night stand, thank you, ma’amis new and foreign and completely out of character for me, I want to give her whatever she needs.

Because I meant what I said. I don’t give a shit about her past or mine.

All that matters is now. This moment and this woman in my arms.

Her shoulders rise and fall on a deep breath and then she relaxes into my embrace.

We remain like this for a moment, and when she finally pulls back, the sheen of tears in her eyes has vanished. She looks up at me and gives me a watery smile. “Think you’ll ever pester me for a date again?”

I flash her that grin she loves so she can get a little peek at my dimple. “Are you busy tonight?”

Paige shakes her head.

“Good. Then I’m taking you on a date.” I release her and put some distance between us before I make good on my desire to kiss those lips of hers. As I make my way back around her desk and settle into the chair I vacated moments ago, I nod toward her desk. “Tell me what you’re reading.”

Paige’s smile lights up her face and it occurs to me, again, that this woman has me by the balls.

And that I’d sell them both to make sure she never stops smiling like that.

Well, maybe not both of them. Could one suffice?

As she jumps right into describing this story, I watch her, reveling in how animated she gets about her passion.

When my phone beeps with a notification that our food has arrived, I slip quickly out of Paige’s office, then return moments later with our lunch. As I set out all the dishes between us, she continues describing her latest manuscript submission to me, and I continue hanging on every word that comes out of her mouth.

But when she pauses to look up and sees the clear takeout cups full of Thai iced tea, her eyes light up like the Rockefeller Center Christmas tree, and I fall for her a little harder.

Chapter Seventeen

Paige

Just after seven o’clock Friday evening, standing in the middle of Times Square, I watch in horror as Travis waits for the light to change, then tells me to stay put and leaves me on the curb as he bolts toward the second lane of traffic and steps onto a bright red, double-decker bus.

He can’t be serious. A double-decker tour bus? A guided tour of the city we live in?

I look around, wishing someone would save me from this moment and this wild man, but then he whistles, and when I look up at him, that eager expression on his face melts my heart, and I can’t find it in me to say no to him.

Seems to be a theme in our relationship.

Well, notrelationship, but… whatever this is.

“Come on!” he shouts, waving me over. “There’s room for two more and they’re just getting started.”

“Oh my god,” I mumble as I look both ways. “I can’t believe I’m doing this.” The light is still red, so I hurry past the stopped cars and allow Travis to pull me up onto the bus. He’s grinning from ear to ear as he leads me to the stairs, then up to the top level.

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