“You told me you loved me,” I blurted.

“What?”

“When you saved me. I heard what you said to me.” I let go of his arm and touched where his lips had been. My fingers lingered there. “You told me you loved me.” I made sure to look right into him. I wanted him to know the truth, my truth. “I love you, too.”

His mouth twisted, looking pained. “Addison.”

I grabbed his shirt. “I love you.”

“No, Addison. I’m letting you go. I’m trying to do the right thing. I’m in the mafia. That’ll never change.”

It didn’t matter. I shook my head. “I’m standing here, and I’m staring at you, and I’m thinking all of those same thoughts. He’s in the mafia. He’s dangerous. He could die. I could see him die.” I dipped my head, but I kept looking at him, holding his gaze. He needed to see that I meant every single word. “I could see you die. All over again. The same nightmare. But it doesn’t matter. That’s the truth that keeps hitting me. It. Doesn’t. Matter. My heart might still be pounding. I might still be walking, talking, breathing when I’m away from you, but I’m not living. That’s what I’ve realized these last four months. I could wait another three, another six. It doesn’t matter, because it’s you. I’m choosing you, just like I chose you the night we were attacked.” The words wrung from me. “I choose you.”

He paused, looking right back into me, and I saw the wall lift. It was staggering. The relief. The sadness. The hope. He was like me, struggling to do the right thing, to walk away, but we were wrong. To stay—that was the right thing.

He crushed me to him. His mouth on mine, once again, where it was supposed to have been this whole time. I felt his desperation, still as hungry as I was.

He murmured, his words a caress against my skin, “Thank God.”

Then he kissed me, and I hoped he’d never stop.

Six months later

“I love you.”

I grinned before I even opened my eyes. This was how every girl should wake up every morning. Cole’s lips touched mine again before he moved down to my throat. I raked my hands through his hair and asked, with my eyes still closed, “Why do you love me?” I loved when he told me.

He laughed, his breath tickling my skin. He kissed my neck. “I love you because of the way you laugh. You didn’t laugh in the beginning, but now I just want to make you laugh all the time.”

I opened one eye. “Yeah?”

He grinned, his eyes twinkling as he kissed the right side of my neck. He was stretched out beside me, leaning on one of his arms. He murmured again, “I love you because you go running with me every morning. Well, most mornings.”

I barked out a laugh now. I hadn’t gone the morning before. Sia’s bachelorette party had proved too much of a hangover for me. But Cole had come back and awoken me in a whole other way. I was hoping for a repeat today.

I opened my other eye. “Come on. Keep going.”

His eyes darkened, and he dropped a light kiss to the left side of my neck. “I love you because you go riding with me, and you don’t mind mucking a stall or two.”

I groaned. “It’s so hard to come back to the city every time we’re at the ranch. It’s beautiful out there.”

He shifted, moving farther down, and I felt his lips in the valley between my breasts. His free hand moved to cover one of them, his thumb rubbing over my nipple.

I murmured, “Keep going. I’m loving hearing all these reasons.” I winked.

He shook his head, just slightly, before he pinched my nipple.

“Hey!”

He ignored me, running his tongue around the nipple.

“I love you because you crashed Dawn’s Tuesday Spaghetti Night with Ken.”

“It’s not fair. If she gets to eat with Ken, I want to eat with him, too.” I stuck out my bottom lip, remembering Dawn’s protests. “She acts like she’s the only one who can be sneaky, or eat with Ken. She’s not the only one who adores him.”

“And.” He moved up, gazing down into my eyes. His hand raked through my hair. “I really love how you embrace everyone in your life.”

“Oh.” That one touched me more the others. He wasn’t talking about Sia, Jake, and Dawn, or even Ken. He wasn’t referring to the rest of the residents in the building. He was talking about Emma, who had become a close friend over the last six months. My throat closed with emotion. “I’m the one lucky to have Emma as a friend. She’s a good person.”

“She’s family to me. I know you made more of an effort for me.” He dropped his lips to mine, whispering there, “Thank you.”

“Sia’s still a little afraid of her.” I laughed lightly, my lips brushing over his. “I love Sia, but I think that makes me like Emma even more.” I sobered. “I wish they weren’t leaving tomorrow.”

Emma had flown in for Sia’s bachelorette party. Cole spent the evening with Carter. I didn’t ask what they did, but when I came home, there’d been paintball gear left on the kitchen table. I had a hard time imagining Cole and Carter Reed playing paintball, but I guess it was ironic in a way.

“We’re flying to see them in a few months.”

“That’s right.” I nudged him, bumping my hips up against his. “I don’t understand why you lied to me before. You could’ve told me you were part owner of The Octavia.”