Page 101 of His to Love
His hand curled around the back of my neck. A delicious shiver rolled through me, spreading outward until my body felt too warm…too exposed.
“I love you.”
“Ah hell,” he whispered, sliding his lips along my jaw and back to my ear. “I love you, too. And I’ll spend the rest of my life proving it to you so you never doubt me again.”
I opened my mouth to tell him it wasn’t necessary, that I already know I wouldn’t.
But then his lips pressed against mine, and his tongue slid into my mouth, tasting me and devouring me.
I decided that what I had to say could wait, because I had a feeling I was going to like the way he proved his love to me.
Epilogue
ONEMONTHLATER
“I feel like we should have our own table since we’re here so much,” I told Tyson as he opened the door to Fireside Grill.
We were here so often it felt almost like my second home. Or third. Considering I’d been splitting my life between my apartment and Tyson’s house, his felt like my second.
He chuckled as he guided me toward a table near the bar, and we both waved hello to Charlie.
“I thought you were headed back to college,” I said to him as Tyson pulled out a chair at a high top table.
Charlie tossed the towel he had been using to wipe down the bar over his shoulder and leaned forward. “Decided to take the semester off. I don’t leave until January.”
“Well, good luck.” I smiled and shook my head when he said something about how, with his looks, he didn’t need luck, before he walked away. “Such a charmer,” I muttered to Tyson when he sat in the chair next to me.
“And you’re a flirt.” He winked teasingly.
I shrugged and smiled at Charlie as he set a margarita on the table in front of me.
“Aw,” I clasped my hand to my chest. “It’s like you know me.”
Tyson cleared his throat and scowled at me, making me laugh. Charlie’s cheeks turned deep red as he set down Tyson’s favorite ale. I wondered briefly if it should concern me that we were here often enough that even the bartender knew our drinks.
“Careful, Charlie. Would hate to have to take you out back.”
Charlie’s smile disappeared and he nodded once before walking away.
“You don’t have to scare the kid,” I said and picked up the menu. Not that I needed it; there were six things on there that I always ordered depending on my mood and tonight felt like a large nacho platter kind of night.
“Kid needs to learn not to stare at a man’s woman with a look that says he’d fuck her if he had the chance.” Tyson set his menu down and clasped his hands on top of it. He was dead serious, which made me choke down a laugh.
“He’s in college,” I reminded Tyson. “He is a kid.”
“Yeah, and probably popular as shit, but once he gets out, he could get his ass kicked for doing what he just did to the wrong guy’s woman.”
I sipped my margarita instead of trying to scold Tyson over the fact that while we might be together—happily—I wasn’t anyone’s to own. We’d had this talk enough for me to know it’d fall on deaf ears anyway.
Needless to say, in the last month, our relationship had moved full speed ahead.
He was loving his job, a job that I actually truly admired when I wasn’t involved. I quickly stopped doubting how much Tyson cared for me, and once I was able to separate his job and the past from our current relationship, there was no looking back.
My father’s case was progressing although we still had several months before the actual trial. Tyson kept me informed as much as possible, but I quickly learned that there would always be things I couldn’t know about his job. But I did know that my father’s organization had essentially collapsed from the top down. I was sure another mafia member would step in and take over someday, because when one bad man fell, another was always there to pick up the pieces. But it was no longer my problem. It also wasn’t a part of my life.
My life had been filled with a career I loved, a man I loved even more, and a handful of friends I couldn’t imagine living without.
“How was your day?” Tyson asked and leaned forward, changing the subject.
