"I freaking loved you! But I was just some dirty secret to you. Not good enough to take out in public. Not good enough to meet your parents."
When the fight finally left her body, getting all of what she was holding in out, she sagged against the car.
I dropped to my knees in front of her, my hands engulfing her narrow hips, looking up as she looked down at me.
The moon made her big green eyes seem brighter than normal, and my heart ached twice as hard.
"You were accurate about my concealed matters." She started to push my hands off her hips, but I just held her tighter.
"They are my secrets that I have been attempting to conceal from you. I did not want them to affect you. I do not want them anywhere near you."
"I do not believe you."
Her words said one thing, but her eyes filled with hope.
Her hands came to rest on my shoulders, and I was thankful she wasn't trying to push me back with them.
"I despise my father and cannot bear to be in the same room as my stepmother."
I didn't let her know it's because the woman has been trying to get into my freaking pants for years, something that makes me want to throw up, but I don't want to make my girl jealous. Jealousy eats me up when it comes to her.
Damn, last week I got jealous of the darn straw in her drink, and I don't want her to have those feelings.
I want her to have no questions about what she is to me, or that I'd ever give another woman the time of day because I wouldn't.
Heck, women haven't even been on my radar for years.
I poured everything into my job.
Until her.
She turned my world upside down.
"That may be true, Dan, but I observed you with another woman. You were holding her hand."
"She is with the FBI." Her fingers tightened on my shoulders waiting for me to continue.
"I have been constructing a case against my god- father, and she is a component of it.
Approximately a year ago he requested that I return here to Springfield and seek the position of hospital director.
Initially, I declined, but he persisted.
Then the FBI contacted me, informing me that matters concerning my father were questionable. I did not appreciate that at all.
I simply wanted to disassociate myself from him, but I had heard him discuss my god- sister.
About coercing her into returning here, and I knew then he had intentions to gain control over her. We may have never been close, but I could not allow him to do that."
"I attended the dinner tonight as a diversion. To go out to dinner, then back to my dad's for drinks. I would distract good old Dad and my stepmom while Debra, my supposed date," I emphasized 'supposed' so she got the point, "went to investigate a little.
But that all went out the window when you would not respond to my text messages."
I told her even though I didn't care that the plan went to hell.
I'll find another way.
Joey is my number one priority.
Not the schemes my god- dad has been doing to advance himself in life.
"I jeopardized your case?"
"Forget the case," I growled, because that wasn't the issue here.
"Joey, my sweet Joey. Consider all the ways I have revered your body. Made love to you every night. You are everything to me. Nothing else in this entire world matters if I do not possess you."
"Dan." Her eyes filled with tears again, but I could tell I was getting through to her.
Her beautiful face had gone soft.
It's the same face she gives me when I tell her how utterly sweet she is, and she tells me there's nothing sweet about her, which is utter nonsense. She's pure sweetness.
A sweetness that only I get.
"Did you truly mean it?" I asked her. Her words still rolling around and around in my head.
"What?"
"When you stated you loved me. Did you mean that? Do you still love me?"
Her words ripped through me when she threw them at me in anger.
I wanted them back.
Needed them.
We've never said them to each other before, because I didn't want to push.
I'd pushed her so much already that I hadn't wanted to add to it.
And to be honest, I wanted them from her first.
I had done so much to get her.
Gone after her hard and just taking over.
I wanted this to be something she gave me.
She dropped down to her knees in front of me, but I scooped her up in my arms and stood.
She wrapped her legs around my waist, her hands around my neck, her fingers digging into my hair at the back of my head.
"You do not ever kneel."
She ignored my words.
"I apologize for overreacting. I just...you are just..." She stumbled over her words, and I held my breath, wondering if she'll say it again.
"Too perfect to be true. This is all so unfamiliar to me. I have never experienced this before, but I should have known I feel it when you touch me, you love me and I love you."
I took her in a deep kiss, pushing my tongue into her mouth, needing a taste of her more than I needed to breathe right now.
I was so freaking scared she'd never give me this again.
Her body melted into mine, her sweetness seeping out.
I pressed her up against the car, but I quickly pulled back, remembering we're still on the side of the road, and I don't want anyone seeing her with all this passion on her face.
It's all mine, and I'm not sharing even a drop of it.
She tried to pull me back to her, and I couldn't help but chuckle.
Over the past few weeks she's become more of the aggressor when it comes to the bedroom.
It's adorable as heck when she tries to boss me around in the bed and when she tries to attack my cock.
"Not here," I told her, trying to remind myself as much as her before my control started to slip.
"Take me home."
I paused at her words, and she must feel my body tense up. "Our home," she finished, making
me smile.
I've been slowly trying to move her in, and it seems she was on to me.