He laughed that beautiful glorious laugh, and a smile lit up his whole face. It was that damn smile that had won me over in the first place.

“Run away with me,” he murmured.

“What?”

“Run away with me. Let’s get out of here.”

“Where are we going?”

“Anywhere. Everywhere.”

“You’re not making any sense,” I said.

But his determination was contagious. I didn’t even know what he was talking about or what had made him act like this, but I suddenly knew I’d go to the ends of the earth for him.

“Isn’t that the beauty of it?”

I shook my head in confusion, but I couldn’t keep a hint of a smile off my face. “I guess. But you set this all up.”

“And now, I’m stealing you away.”

He grabbed my hand and pulled me back through the crowd before I could offer an argument. Really, what argument could I have? He had done everything I had hoped for in the span of two minutes, and I had no idea why.

But I was carried away with being with him. Exhilaration and excitement flared up every time I was around him. It was like the first time all over again—when I had tried so hard to resist him and it was all for naught. Because Grant wasn’t anything like I’d thought he’d be. He loved me, and tonight, it was written all over his face.

How had I let that slip my mind when we were angry at each other?

Suddenly we were outside in the bitter cold and I was following him to his blue truck that was illegally parked in front of the building.

“You weren’t planning on staying long, huh?”

“Hurst wouldn’t have towed it, but no, I wasn’t.”

He opened the passenger door for me, and I stared at him.

“Why are you in such a hurry?”

“Because I need you, Ari. I need you now. I didn’t see that before.” He ran a hand back through his hair.

I noticed his knuckles were scraped up, and I wondered if he had been fighting or something. He grabbed my hand and pulled me in closer.

His gaze was electric. “I was an idiot. We should never have argued like we did. I love you—plain and fucking simple. Everything else, we’ll figure out.”

“Okay,” I said hesitantly.

I wasn’t sure what had caused this complete one-hundred-and-eighty-degree turn in him. It was as if the last couple of weeks had never happened, and our relationship was starting over with a clean slate. I appreciated it, but I was also wary of it backfiring in my face.

“But we’re going to talk more later about what happened, right?”

He reached out and stroked my hair. “Whatever you want.”

Then, he was kissing me again. Fire burned through my skin, and I reached out for him. I grasped on to his sides, and a guttural cry broke free from his mouth.

I stepped back in shock. “Wha-what’s wrong?”

He held his side. His eyes were closed, and he ground his teeth together.

“Did something happen?”

“I’m fine,” he said slowly after a labored minute.

“You are absolutely not fine. Were you fighting? Did someone hurt you?” I asked. Terror washed over my features.

“No, no fighting. This is all my doing. Let’s talk about it when we get back to my place.”

“Are you okay to drive?”

“Ari,” he said softly. The pain was gone from his face, but I didn’t know if he was hiding it or if it was gone from his body, too. “We’ll talk once we get there.”

“All right.” I hopped into the car without complaint only because I didn’t think he would give up information otherwise. I didn’t want him to be hurt. That cry had been inhuman.

When Grant sat down in the driver’s seat, he handed me a large plain brown box. “Here, I, uh…got this for you.”

I took the box from him as he drove down the street. After everything that had happened between us, I was still a bit in shock over the lengths he had gone to for my birthday. First, the surprise party—which we hadn’t even stayed at—and now, a gift, a pretty big one by the size of the box.

“Thank you.” I found the lip of the box and tugged it up. Inside, the present was wrapped in dark blue tissue paper. I was surprised he had splurged on tissue paper. It seemed to contradict the plain box, but it made me smile nonetheless.

I carefully tore the paper aside and pulled the contents out of the box. Unrolling the hastily put together package, my mouth dropped open when I realized what I was holding in my hand—a black leather jacket. The sleeves were quilted. There were double buckles at the wrists and one across the back. The jacket was a moto design that crossed the body and zipped up the left side with a wide open collar. I brought it to my nose and inhaled. The smell of new leather was unbelievable, and the whole thing was so amazingly soft.

“Wow.”

He glanced over at me. Concern creased his features. “Wow, good? Or wow, this sucks? Why would you ever get this for me? It’s so dumb.”

It wasn’t me at all. I would never have bought myself something like this. It had grunge and rocker written all over it. I also tended to prefer faux leather—not that I was an animal rights activist by any means, but it was how I’d been raised.

But it was from Grant.

“It’s…beautiful.”

“Are you just saying that?”

“Would I do that?”

He shrugged. “Maybe.”

“No, I wouldn’t.”

“I love your cardigans, Princess, but I think you’d look fucking hot in leather.”

I laughed. “When you say that, I imagine you’re not thinking about a leather jacket.”

He smirked. “I’m imagining you naked.”

Of course he was.

My cheeks heated as I slung the jacket on. It fit perfectly. It was warm and molded to my body. Considering I hadn’t even asked for a present, this was pretty amazing. Grant couldn’t have done better.

I reached out for his hand and linked out fingers. I knew I needed to talk about our argument even if Grant didn’t want to discuss it. “Grant, I’m sorry about this weekend.”

“It’s okay,” he said dismissively. “We just got into an argument.”

“I know. I…feel like we should have talked about it afterward.”

“Well, I went to your hotel, and no one would let me contact you. Plus, you never answered your phone.”

“It was stupid. I just wanted to sleep.”