Ryan flushed. “No thanks. It didn’t wind up working out too well last time.”
“Really.” His eyes were dark under the slashes of his brows. “I thought it worked out amazingly well. So well I didn’t trust myself to believe in it.” He reached out for her hand and drew her down to the couch. “So well I got scared and tried to end the best thing that had ever happened to me.”
The combination of his words and his touch made her dizzy. “What do you mean?”
He pulled her hand to his mouth and pressed his lips to her palm, the caress made up of equal parts pain, longing, and devotion. He raised his eyes to hers. “I mean I love you. I have for weeks, maybe since the night we met. I was just too paranoid to believe in it.”
The breath left her lungs. She heard him through a roaring in her ears.
“You tried to tell me what we were to each other. Patrick tried to tell me, but I just couldn’t see it.” She looked pale, her eyes huge. He thought about stopping, but he had to get it out. “I couldn’t see it until yesterday, when we went live, and everybody in the room was jumping up and down—and the one person I wanted to share it with was you, the person I’d tried to push out of my life. And I realized what I was throwing away.” He leaned his forehead against her hands. “I love you so much, Ryan. I miss you, being with you, talking with you, just knowing you’re near. And I want to be with you for life. I know I was an idiot, that I hurt you, but I figured it out. Just tell me I figured it out in time.”
Ryan felt like she’d been spun around by an amusement park ride, the kind that left you dizzy and giddy and breathless. One moment her world was gray and worn, now it was sparkling with promise. How could everything have turned around to be so utterly right? She saw Cade’s eyes on hers, strained and intent, waiting.
Waiting for an answer from her, she realized with a jolt.
Okay. The thing to do was to be casual, classy, self-possessed oh my god just smile and tell him thank you and oh my god, he said he loves me— “Yes!” She laughed, and threw her arms around him, and then their mouths were hungry on one another’s, saying in seconds all the words they’d say to each other when they could stand to stop.
Ryan came up for air first, the laughter bubbling up again. “God, we should stop this. I’m supposed to meet Helene and some publicist here. That’s all I need is for them to find me making out in the lobby.”
He stuck his tongue in his cheek. “I wouldn’t worry about that too much. You’re not the only one who can spin a yarn.”
“What do you…” She stared at him as understanding dawned. “You mean this is all a setup?”
He grinned unrepentantly. “Well, you wouldn’t take my calls and I figured I had to find a way to get through to you. I couldn’t go another day without you.” He pulled her close for a hot, hard kiss. “And I don’t intend to do without you one day more.”
“What do you want to do, then?”
Cade smiled down at her and pulled her to her feet. “Let’s go upstairs and you can tell me a story.”
Write what you know, Ryan thought as they crossed to the elevators. The idea of a muse had succeeded beyond Helene’s wildest dreams. She knew love, now, she knew romance. And now she knew happy endings too.
ISBN: 978-1-4268-8247-0MY SEXIEST MISTAKE
Copyright © 2002 by Kristin Lewotsky.
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My Sexiest Mistake Page 24
