I was losing her. Not that I’d had her, but I could tell her doubts were eating at her, gnawing at her. I knew what that did to you. How it could make you miss the things right in front of you.

We made it to the end of the exhibit and I knew my time was almost up.

“I have something to show you,” I said, reaching for her hand. She let me take it and I took that as a good sign. I led her to a garden just outside the doors of the exhibit. Peonies were everywhere.

“Your suggestion?” I asked. Her cheeks pinked up a bit.

“How did you know?” I raised my eyebrow and she laughed. “Yeah, I guess they’re kind of my thing.”

“They are,” I said, pulling out a chair for her. She took a seat.

“I have something for you.” I slid the thick envelope across the table.

“What is this?” she asked, picking it up and opening it. My palms were sweaty and I rubbed them on my pants.

As she read through the papers, her eyes got wide. She flipped through more than half before staring up at me.

“What? You’re giving me your company? But…but…”

“I own it outright as of a few months ago. It’s all mine. Everything I’ve ever worked for. Everything I’ve ever destroyed to get to this point, but I realize now, that it doesn’t matter. None of that matters, if I don’t have you. I’m giving it to you. You can do whatever you want with it.”

“Killian…” She shook her head. It wasn’t working. Desperation pushed me forward.

“You can sell it off. Use the money to do charity work here with your mom. Or give it all to Thayer. He’s gotten pretty good at giving all his money away.”

“You’d really be okay with me giving all this money to Rhys? Selling off the company you’ve worked so hard to build.”

“If you say you’ll stay with me. That you’ll give me another chance, I’d let you sell my company a hundred times.”

“I can’t do that,” she said, her hands wrapped tightly around the stack of paper. My heart sank. I felt like I was dropping fast, drowning under my own ambitions. I’d worked so hard and ended up losing the one thing I ever truly wanted.

“I can’t sell it off. I can’t do this.” She stood from the chair and I jumped up and wrapped my arms around her.

“I can’t do it without you, Rachel. I promised your mom that if you said no today, that I’d be able to walk away. That I would give you the space you needed, but I can’t promise that.” I held her face in my hands. “I can’t promise that because I will do anything it takes to get you to believe me. To make you understand how much you mean to me.”

“Killian, don’t,” she said, trying to pull away from me. Desperation tightened my chest and I pressed my lips to hers. She put her hands on my chest. At first, I thought she was going to push me away and I steeled myself for that rejection, but she wound her hands around the fabric of my shirt and pulled me closer.

The kiss morphed and deepened as she parted her lips. She held onto me and I held on even tighter to her. I needed her more than I’d ever needed anything in my life.

We sat there for hours and I spilled it all. Everything about my mom and my dad. About Rhys and what happened after she left. The glare of the setting sun nearly blinded me before she covered my hand with hers.

“I can’t sell your company, Killian,” she said, taking her hand back and putting it in her lap. My heart sunk. It wasn’t enough. I wasn’t enough.

“I can do far more good if the company is still up and running and generating revenue. Plus, it’s a tax write off,” she said, glancing up at me with a small smile. I lifted her out of the seat, my arms wrapped around her, kissing her lips hard. My lifeline.

“I promise you won’t regret it. You won’t and every day I’ll prove to you, just how good I can be to you.”

“I’m going to hold you to that, Killian. Or else I’ll send my mom and Dahlia after you.”

I shuddered, imagining the two of them coming after me.

“You wouldn’t be so devious.”

“I learned from the best,” she said, pressing her lips against mine. Nipping my lip. I growled and threaded my hand into her hair, crushing her to me.

She pushed me back, keeping her arms around my neck.

“You know you have to meet my parents now, right?”

I groaned.

“I already had a long talk with your mom,” I said, rubbing my hand across my forehead.

“You did? When?” she asked, looking surprised.

“When she came to my room last night and threatened to castrate me if I didn’t give you what you needed.”

“She did?”

“I have no doubt in my mind that between her and Dahlia, they wouldn’t make good on that promise.”

She laughed. I loved hearing her laugh.

“I think you’re completely right. Good call on not pissing those two off.”

“I thought so.”

“Now what?” she said, glancing up at me, biting her bottom lip.