Page 66 of Tempt My Heart

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To her relief,Christopher was still there when she woke up. His eyes were open and he stared at the ceiling as if it held all the answers in the universe.

“I love you,” she said, unable to keep it inside any longer as her eyes roved over the planes of his face.

He pulled his gaze towards her as if he was sure he’d only imagined her lips moving. “What?”

“I love you.”

“But—”

“No,” she said simply, and he gaped when she pressed a small kiss to his mouth. “I heard you last night, what you told Jared. Unless I was justsuperconcussed.”

“Ali, you don’t have to say it back just because—”

“I’ve been in love with you for a while,” she admitted, “I was just too scared to tell you or let myself feel it.”

“And now?” he whispered, something that looked an awful lot like hope crossing his face.

“I love you so damn much.”

A smile broke out across his face and she basked in the warmth of it.

“Thank fuck for that.”

Epilogue

Christopher handed her a flute of champagne as she sat on the back porch of their house. The air smelled fresh and the trees were still covered in rain drops, but the sky was free of rain clouds for the time being.

She’d only been living there for a month now, but it had felt like forever. They had fit into each other’s lives as if they were always meant to be there, like a gap they hadn’t known they were waiting to fill.

Freya and Jesse visited plenty and stayed over fairly frequently, but Ali still missed them a lot—it was more of a nostalgic ache though, a fondness for the times they had even as she was grateful to be where she was now.

“You won’t believe what she did this afternoon,” Christopher grumbled as he tucked her into his side.

“What?” she asked, amused. Apparently he hadn’t been kidding when he’d said it was hard to find a good assistant. The girl he’d hired to replace Ali was young and enthusiastic, but also clumsy and a little naive.

“She tripped over the wire she’d plugged into her printer, spilled her coffee all over Denver as he came out of my office, who then knocked into me.”

She snorted. “I can picture Den’s face now.”

“I bet you can’t,” Christopher said, a smirk tilting his mouth as she raised an eyebrow. He widened his eyes at her and stammered out, “A-ah, no worries at all. My fault anyway.”

“No,” she gasped in delight. “He’s smitten with her?”

“Seems that way.” Christopher rolled his eyes. “How was your day?”

“Long, but I spoke to my mom. She’s in Germany with Caleb now.”

He shook his head. “Hell of a meet-cute.”

Ali snorted. “You’re telling me.”

She had been surprised when her mom had confessed that Caleb and her had got together, but at the same time she was just glad her mom had someone in the same way that she had Christopher.

“Did you tell her the news yet?” he murmured, wrapping his arms around her and resting them on her stomach.

“Yeah, she was happy for me.”

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