Hell on Wheels (Black Knights Inc. #1)(94)

“Good to see you again, Ali,” Ozzie said as they darted past his bank of computers.

“You too, Ozzie,” she replied, yanking on Nate’s hand as if she wanted to stop and actually talk to Ozzie at a time like this.

She was completely crazy if she thought he’d slow down for one nanosecond before getting her alone and, more importantly, naked.

When she planted her feet, he shot Ozzie a murderous scowl before bending to hoist the wonderful, crazy, slow woman into his arms.

“Nate!” she squawked indelicately as he pounded up to the third floor and ran, literally ran into his room, slamming the door behind him with an impatient boot. “That was incredibly rude.”

“Hmph.” He threw her on the bed before launching himself on top of her. The fabulous woman giggled seductively and caught him in the soft cradle of her thighs, grabbing his shoulders and ravaging his mouth.

Savage. She totally dug his savage.

He wasn’t sure who took off what, but in an instant they were naked, and he was pushing himself into the hottest, sweetest home he’d ever known.

“Say it again,” he breathed.

“I love you,” she whispered, arching beneath him, taking everything he could give her, giving everything in return.

Long moments later, they were both sated, gasping as the last vestiges of completion shivered through the sweet, hot place where they remained connected. When he finished blowing like a damned racehorse, he pushed up on one elbow to brush away a damp tendril from the corner of her rosebud mouth.

“So…” he said and, unable to resist it, bent to plant a soft kiss on those plump lips.

“So…” she parroted, opening one sparkling eye and grinning that grin he loved so much.

“I, uh…that is to say, I guess we should talk about…what I mean is…um, do you…would you…” Dear Lord, he was such an *. When it really mattered, he couldn’t seem to voice the question.

“Would I what, Nate? Do that again? Need you even ask?” She chuckled, hooking an ankle behind his ass and swirling her hips.

“No. I mean, yes.” He rolled his pelvis forward because the feel of her around him…Jesus. It was unlike anything. But that wasn’t what he was trying to say. “Ali, would you…”

“Do this?”

She squeezed her inner muscles, and his eyes crossed. Literally. “That works,” he managed to pant. Oh, man, did it work. “But Ali, would you…”

“Yes.”

A smile tugged at his lips even though he was having a really tough time concentrating on anything but the sheer physical pleasure of having her in his arms. “Ya don’t even know what I was gonna ask, woman.”

Her sweet, sexy grin brightened his entire world. “It doesn’t matter, Nate. The answer is always the same…yes.”

“Marry me,” he blurted, because he was coming up with a big handful of nada when it came to managing some sort of suave, romantic way to ask the question.

“Marry you?” Her beautiful, golden eyes widened and instantly filled with such sweet affection.

He swallowed and nodded, his stupid heart perched dead center in his desert-dry throat.

“Well,” she pursed her lips.

His idiotic heart climbed up into his nose, burning like hot coals and making his eyes water.

“It depends,” she finished, and he blew out a relieved breath.

He’d do anything. Quit the Knights, become a car salesman, sell Phantom, pick off all the gum stuck beneath her students’ desk with his teeth…

She smiled that Mona Lisa smile and employed his favorite trick; she simply waited him out.

“What?” he demanded when he couldn’t stand it a second longer. “It depends on what?”

“On whether or not you think you can grow to love me.”

“Grow to—” He shook his head, dumbfounded. “Woman, I’ve loved you since the first moment I laid eyes on you.”

“Mmm,” she closed her eyes, “that sounds nice. I might just get used to hearing that.”

“I love you,” he breathed, holding her beautiful face between his palms so he could drop soft kisses on her eyebrows, cheeks, nose…

“I love you,” he whispered against her lips, bending to kiss her and then—

“How?” he asked her, his burgeoning heart freezing solid.

“How what?” she opened her eyes to watch him like a cat watches a thick bowl of cream. When she looked at him like that he wanted to—

No. He shook his head. Before they went any further, he had to know.

“How can you love me after what I did?”

Her cute little nose wrinkled as her eyebrows veed. “What you did? You did the most loyal, courageous, selfless thing I’ve ever heard of, Nate. How could I not love you?”

“But you…you threw up after you found out—”

“I throw up because I have the world’s weakest stomach and that’s what I do. It didn’t have anything to do with blame, Nate. It had to do with sympathy. When I realized what it must’ve cost you I…I lost it. Literally. My lunch was all over the Oval Office’s fancy rug. And then you ran out and you wouldn’t take my calls, so I figured you didn’t want me or my sympathy.”