Page 15 of Gentleman's Anger
“Listen, um… this might be crazy, but I never could have done what did last night, without being at least a little in love with you.”
nine
LOGAN
All I can hear is roaring in my ears. The room around us blurs and it’s just her and I. She fucking loves me. I crave her. I need her. With every fiber of my being I need her.
Again.
Always.
Forever.
“Say something, Logan. Please. I’m sorry if it’s too soon.” She looks panicked, like I am about to kick her ass to the curb or something.
“You love me?” I ask, still in shock. Disbelief.
“I do. I love you.”
“I love you, too,” I reply honestly. My heart feeling whole for the first time in a long ass time.
“You don’t have to say it just because I did. I just needed you to say something.”
“I’m not, duchess. I felt it when I first laid eyes on you.”
“Me too. It was like there was a magnet between us, drawing me to you.”
“Exactly. We were powerless to stop it.”
“So what do we do now?” she asks.
“We get married,” I reply.
“You know, we don’t have to get married just because we had sex. It might be 1820 in the Pinnacle, but out here it’s 2023.”
“I know we don’t, but I want to. A lot of things happened to me in that first moment I saw you. I clearly saw our future together. You belong to me, Patience.”
“You belong to me too,” she says.
“Damn right I do.”
“Okay. So we’re getting married.”
At the same time, we say, “it should be at the club.”
“See. We were made for each other.”
“I know that. I should probably tell you that I own 49% of the club.”
“Okay. It clear I need to start making some investments.”
“It’s an excellent tax shelter.”
“I donate a large sum to a no-kill shelter near where I grew up. Does that count?”
“Not for money making, but it gives you philanthropical points.”
“Good,” I say, standing a bit to lean over the table and kiss her. It’s a very chaste kiss, given that we are public, but that doesn’t stop someone from snapping our picture. I hear the sound and turn toward it.
