In the morning, Charley and Tyler were up early for breakfast before hitting the road to Boston. The day was sunny and cold, the sky a bright blue and the trees frosted from overnight snowfall.

“I love winter days like this,” Tyler said. “Take away the snow, and you can almost fool yourself into thinking it’s summer.”

“Until you step outside in a bathing suit and freeze your ass off.”

“Why would I do that on the twenty-sixth of December?”

“It’s your metaphor,” she said teasingly. She’d been awake before dawn, excited about their trip and to spend more time with him. While they were in Boston, she wanted to find the courage to tell him she’d fallen for him, too. She wanted him to know that she was no longer looking for an exit strategy.

It’d been more than ten years since she told a man she loved him, and that man had run roughshod over her heart and soul. Even knowing there was no chance of that happening this time, Charley was still nervous about saying those words to Tyler. But she wanted to. More than once in the last few days since he’d first said them to her, she’d come close to uttering those three magical words.

Something had always stopped her. Tonight, she’d decided, nothing would stop her. Charley loved him. She loved everything about him, from the tender way he’d cared for her to his obvious devotion to her to his love for his family. She loved that he was brilliant at his work and humble about his success. Over the last couple of weeks, she’d fallen in love with his beautiful home on the hill, too. She could see herself living there permanently.

Taken on their own, any of these realizations would be life changing. Taken together, they left her feeling as if an emotional tsunami had roared through her life, changing her forever. In the early predawn light, she’d begun to understand that she would never again be the woman she’d been before her accident, before Tyler had loved her.

And that was okay, because she liked who she was with him, who they were together. She was comfortable in the new skin of this relationship because he’d handled it—and her—just right.

He turned on the radio and reached for her hand.

Charley cradled his hand between both of hers. “Wait. Is this the Beatles channel?”

“Yeah, why?”

“Noooo, no, no. No Beatles.”

“Why not? I love the Beatles.”

“Noooooo. You can’t. No, no, no.”

He laughed at her vehemence, which made her dig in deeper.

“I can’t be with a man who listens to the Beatles channel. I was weaned on the Beatles. My father is insane for them. We have dogs named Ringo and George. Please, I beg of you, no Beatles.”

“Baby, come on. You can’t do this to me. They’re my favorite band ever.”

“Noooooooooooo. I knew you were too good to be true. There had to be something wrong with you. Better I discovered this now rather than later.” She tried to pull her hand free of his grasp, but he held on tighter.

“I’m not letting you go. I’ll change the channel for you.”

Holding the wheel with his knees, he used his other hand to flip the channel. “Do you have anything against Nirvana?”

“Nothing at all.”

“I may keep you around then.”

“The Beatles and Nirvana. There’s an interesting combo.”

“I’m an interesting kind of guy.”

“If my dad didn’t already love you, he would after hearing you love the Beatles. That’s all it takes to win him over.”

“That’s good info to have. Might come in handy someday if I want to kiss up to him.”

“Why would you want to do that?”

He glanced over at her, seeming to gauge whether he should say what was on his mind. “You know. In case . . .”

“Of what?”

“If I maybe want to marry his daughter, it would be nice if I asked his permission.”

Hearing him use the M word hit her like a punch to the heart.

“Should I not have said that?”

“It’s okay.”

“If it’s okay, why is your voice all high and screechy?”

“My voice is not screechy.”

“You aren’t hyperventilating, are you?”

Charley laughed at the genuine concern in his tone. “No, Tyler, I’m not hyperventilating at the thought of marrying you.”

“Really? You’re not?”

“You sound disappointed.”

“I’m . . . I’m not sure what I am. This is a good thing, right? That you’re not hyperventilating?”

“I’ve heard hyperventilation isn’t good for one’s health, so yes, it’s a good thing that I’m not hyperventilating.”

“That’s not what I meant, and you know it.”

“You’re sounding a bit screechy.”

“Charley! Stop torturing me and quit talking in circles. I’m getting dizzy.”

“What was the question again?”

“I haven’t asked you the question, but if I did, what would you say?”

“You want like an answer now?”

“A gist would be good. Are we in the maybe zone or the hell-no zone?”

“Definitely maybe.”

“Definitely maybe,” he said, grinning widely. “Those might be my new favorite words.”

“You’re easy to please, Tyler.”

“Not always, but you please me, Charlotte. You please me very much.”

They got to Boston in plenty of time to attend a matinee of Beautiful, the Carole King musical, which Charley absolutely loved. After the show, they checked into an elegant suite at the Ritz-Carlton, and Charley was appropriately dazzled. At the floor-to-ceiling windows that looked out over the Boston Common, Charley took in the view of the park and the city and the water in the distance.

Tyler slid his arms around her from behind. “Good?”

“Fantastic.”

“I’m glad you like it.” He kissed her neck and the hot spot behind her ear that made her go weak. “I was thinking about seeing if the bed lives up to the hype before our dinner reservations. Unless you want to go shopping or something.”

Smiling at his shameless flirting, she turned in his arms and hooked hers around his neck. “We really ought to make sure the bed is comfortable before we’re stuck with it for the night.”

“It would be the responsible thing to do.” He slid his hands down her arms to link their fingers, walking backward as he led her into the bedroom. The blinds had been lowered but not completely drawn and candles flickered on the bedside table.

“I’ve been set up,” she said.

“Guilty as charged.”

“I like being set up by you.”

He put his arms around her and hugged her in close to him. “Sometimes I still can’t believe you’re saying stuff like that to me. You have no idea how long I’ve wanted you.”

“How long?”

“I don’t remember a time when I didn’t want you. You were so untouchable though.” As he spoke, he continued to kiss her neck and his hands moved restlessly over her body, setting her on fire. “So aloof and out of reach.”

“I wasn’t.”

“Yes, you were. You weren’t ready for this. I get that now.”

“You intimidated me with your intensity. Pushing you away was easier than letting you in.”

He gathered up the skirt of the dress she’d worn for their trip to the big city and had it up and over her head in a matter of seconds, leaving her wearing the red-and-black lace bra and panties set he’d given her for Christmas.

Watching the bob of his Adam’s apple and the flare of heat in his eyes as he took in the sight of her was madly arousing. And knowing he loved her made it possible for her to give herself to him completely, letting him sweep her under into the sea of emotion and desire he aroused in her.

He guided her to sit on the bed and then began unbuttoning the dress shirt he’d worn untucked with dark jeans. As he revealed his body to her, it was Charley’s turn to stare at the play of muscles, the trail of dark hair that led into black boxer briefs, the thick bands of muscle that curved around his hips and the hard cock that sprung free when he removed the briefs.

She reached for him, but he stopped her from stroking him.

“Not yet,” he said. “First you.” With his hands on her hips, he tugged her gently to the edge of the mattress, supported her healing leg on a stack of pillows and then dropped to his knees beside the bed.

Charley’s heartbeat was a wild, untamed thing as he removed her panties and used his big hands on her inner thighs to open her to his gaze. For the longest time, he only looked while she incinerated from the anticipation that grew and multiplied until her breathing became choppy and uneven. She was on the verge of begging him to do something when he dropped his head and exhaled against her sensitive flesh.

Was she really going to come from only his warm breath against her tingling clit?

“You’re so beautiful, Charley. You have no idea what you do to me, or what it feels like to finally be able to touch you this way and to tell you how much I love you.” Using his thumbs to hold her open, he punctuated his words with deep strokes of his tongue over her, into her.

She grasped the soft fabric of the comforter, holding on for dear life as he took her up so fast she barely had time to register what was happening before she detonated. That was the only word she could think of to describe the full-body orgasm that ripped through her.

He brought her down slowly, with light strokes of his tongue over her quivering flesh.

Charley had only begun to regain control of her senses when he pushed two fingers into her, rolling one orgasm into another as he sucked on her clit and stroked her from the inside. Before him, she’d suspected sex like this only happened in movies and romance novels. It didn’t happen to real people. It had certainly never happened to her.

His fingers were slick with her wetness when he slid one of them into her anus, with no advance warning, no fanfare, nothing more than the casual press of flesh against flesh until she was crying out from the dark, shocking pleasure that blasted through her like an out-of-control skier careening downhill at full speed.

Charley had never felt anything that could compare with that third orgasm as she bucked against his tongue and contended with the tight squeeze of his finger in a place where nothing had ever been before. By the time he brought her back down to earth and withdrew from her body, she was a trembling, needy mess of raw nerves and emotions that were all new to her.

He kissed her tenderly. “Don’t move. I’ll be right back.”

As if she could move when her muscles and bones had gone liquid. She heard the water running in the bathroom, and then he was back, hovering over her with his huge cock stretching above his navel.

“You okay?” he asked, his brows knitted with concern as he looked down on her.

She could only imagine how she must look after being thoroughly ravished—and apparently he wasn’t done with her yet. “Mmm. Think so.”

“Think so? You’re not sure?”

“I don’t think I could move if the place were on fire, but otherwise, I’m good. I’m great in fact. Do you mind if I sleep for the next eight to twelve hours?”

His smile unfolded slowly, making his eyes sparkle. “No way. I’ve got lots of plans for you, and I need you wide awake.”

“That thing you did . . .”

“This?” He reached beneath her to press again on her back door, setting off a riot of sensation that she felt everywhere. “You liked it?”

“You couldn’t tell from the nuclear orgasm?”

Chuckling, he nuzzled her cheek and continued to press rhythmically against her tight opening without breaching her.

Charley couldn’t believe that she was about to beg him to do it again.

But he had other plans, she realized, when that imposing cock pushed against her tender flesh, entering and withdrawing repeatedly.

“Tyler! Stop teasing me.”

“Is that what I’m doing?”

“You know it is.”

His cocky grin told her he knew exactly what he was doing to her and was enjoying every second of it, the sadistic bastard.

“Tyler . . . Please.”

“Is this what you want?” he asked, thrusting into her before withdrawing once again.

“Yes,” she said on a gasp as her internal muscles stretched to accommodate him and then contracted after his abrupt departure.

“How about you give me something I want first?” Reaching behind her, he released the clasp of her bra and was tossing it across the room a second later. Lowering his head, he caressed her left nipple with his tongue before moving to the other side for more of the same. The sensations traveled from her nipple to her clit, making her burn with desire even after coming three times.

“What? What do you want?” At that moment, she’d give him just about anything if it meant relief from the sweet torture.

Propped on his elbows, he gazed down at her, his fingers sweeping the hair back from her face. “I love you, Charley. I really and truly love you. I want to know if you love me, too. I want to know if I’m going to have forever with you. I want you to tell me you’re here with me to stay, that you’re not thinking anymore about how best to leave me when it’s so fucking good between us. You have to feel it, too. You—”

She raised her fingers to his lips to quiet him. “I do feel it, and I do love you, too, Tyler.”

When the time was right and the person was right and the pieces had come together to form a picture you’d never imagined for yourself, it wasn’t all that hard to say the words, Charley discovered. And the deep sigh that escaped from him as he closed his eyes and rested his forehead on hers told her everything she’d ever need to know about how invested he was in her.

“I’m sorry if I put you through the wringer to get here.”

“You, this . . . It was worth everything you put me through and then some.” Taking himself in hand, he entered her slowly, reverently, taking his time probably because she’d told him they’d have the time—all the time in the world. “Tell me again. I need to hear it again.”

“I love you, Tyler. I love everything about you.”

“Fuck, Charley . . . You’re killing me.”

Amused by his reaction, she tightened her muscles around him, drawing a low groan from him before he began to move faster, pounding into her as he gripped her ass cheeks in his big hands, giving her everything he had to give and more than she’d ever dreamed possible.

They came together, straining, sweating, gasping, fingers digging into dense muscle and cries of completion shattering the quiet.

“Charley,” he whispered after he’d collapsed on top of her. “God, Charley . . .”

She stroked his back in small circles with one hand, while running the fingers of her other hand through his hair soothingly.

“Say it again. I’m still not sure if I dreamed it.”

Smiling, she said, “I love you, Tyler. I love you, I love you, I love you. And you’re not dreaming.”

“I have to be.” Cupping her breast, he touched his tongue to the tight tip and began to harden inside her once again. “Nothing this astonishing could possibly be real.”

“It’s real.”

“And you’re not going to leave me at midnight on the thirty-first?”

“I’m not going to leave you for as long as you still want me—masochist stalker perv that you are.”

“I’m always going to want you.”

“Then I guess you’re stuck with me.”

He wrapped his arms around her and squeezed so tight she could barely breathe. “Thank Christ for that.”

They dined at a fabulous Italian restaurant in the North End and drank a full bottle of champagne over dinner. Tyler was euphoric after the afternoon in bed with her, during which so many questions had finally been answered. She loved him. She had no plans to leave him. He was stuck with her, and that was all he’d wanted to hear.

As he fed her a bite of chocolate mousse after dinner, he watched her face, memorizing the happy glow, the flushed cheeks, the swollen lips. He couldn’t wait to get her back to the hotel to pick up where they’d left off before dinner.

“Could I ask you something?” he said between bites of decadent mousse.

“Uh-huh.”

“Did I blackmail you into saying something you weren’t ready to say earlier?”

“Not at all. I was ready. In fact, I was planning to tell you sometime during our trip, so thanks for making it easy on me.”

“When did you know?”

She eyed him coyly, smiling in that secretive way she reserved only for him. “Like you want the exact minute?”

The best sex of his life had already turned his blood to liquid fire, but Tyler topped off their glasses with the last of the champagne anyway. Tonight was for celebration. “The exact minute would be good.”

Charley appeared to give his request considerable thought while he fed her more bites of mousse. “If I’m being honest . . .”

“I wouldn’t want you any other way.”

“The first day at your house, when you helped me in the bathroom and were a perfect gentleman. I think it might’ve happened then.”

Tyler stared at her, agape. “That long ago?”

“That was the first time I felt something happen here,” she said, rubbing her breastbone for emphasis. “It took a lot longer for me to accept it for what it was.”

“And what was it?”

She rolled her eyes. “You’ve already gotten me to say it like a hundred times.”

“I still won’t be satisfied when you’ve said it a million times.”

“It was love, you knucklehead. For such a smart guy, you sure can be dense sometimes.”

Tyler laughed at the comment and fed her more of the mousse.

“It’ll take a really long time to say it a million times, you know. Years.”

“Decades,” he said. “I’m not going anywhere, and you’re not either, so feel free to get started on that million any time now.”

She crooked her finger, drawing him close enough for her to whisper in his ear. “I love you, Tyler.”

The words, the heat of her breath skirting over his ear . . . That was all it took to make him hard. While Charley giggled at his befuddled reaction, he signaled for the waiter. “Check please.”

He was all over her in the cab back to the hotel, his hand inside her coat and flat against her inner thigh, creeping up, up, up, until she stopped him from going any further.

“Not here,” she said against his wet lips.

Despite the anxious glances from the cabdriver in the mirror that she noticed out of the corner of her eye, Tyler never stopped kissing her, touching her, arousing her.

“We’re here,” the cabbie said with annoyance when he’d brought the car to a stop outside the Ritz.

Tyler pulled himself away from her to take a fifty from his wallet. “Keep the change.”

“Hey, thanks, man.”

Tyler got out and then helped her, holding her until she got her bearings.

“The last thing I want is for you to reinjure yourself while tipsy from champagne,” he said into her ear, making her squirm against him shamelessly. His black overcoat was unbuttoned, giving her an unfettered view of his smoking hotness in the dark gray suit and creamy white dress shirt that he’d worn without a tie.

“I’m not going to fall. Don’t worry.”

Taking her hand, he led her into the hotel.

“I have to pee,” she whispered—or what she considered a whisper.

“We’ll be upstairs in a minute.”

“Can’t wait that long.” A bellhop pointed her toward the lobby restroom, and she left Tyler with her coat at one of the sofas, kissing him before she walked—or hobbled—toward the long corridor that led to the restrooms. She was approaching the ladies’ room when a man came out of the men’s room and nearly crashed into her.

“So sorry,” he said, taking her elbow to keep her from falling over.

The voice was familiar so Charley looked up at his face and gasped at the sight of Michael Devlin—older, heavier, balder, but definitely him. She recoiled from his touch, her skin seeming to shrivel on her bones.

“Charley? Charley Abbott? Is that really you?”

“No.” She felt like a wounded, trapped animal as she tried to send the message to her legs to get her out of there, away from him. “No.” Walking backward, afraid to take her eyes off him, she stumbled, wrenching her surgically repaired knee. The pain was massive and required her full attention as she stumbled into the ladies’ room, praying he wouldn’t follow her.

“Charley, wait! It’s been too long. I can’t believe it’s you. What’re the odds?”

What were the odds indeed? Someone up there must surely hate her to put him, of all people, in her path on this of all days.

He actually followed her into the bathroom.

“Go away,” she growled, “or I swear to God I’ll have you arrested.” Where her ability to form words was coming from, she couldn’t begin to imagine. All she knew was that she had to get away from him and the threat he posed to her physical and emotional well-being. She lunged for a stall and fumbled with the lock, her sweaty hands slipping over the cool metal twice before she was able to secure it. With tiny beads of light dancing before her eyes, Charley realized she’d been holding her breath. She took deep greedy gulps of air as tears flowed down her cheeks.

“Charley, come on. I just want to talk. You have to come out of there sometime.”

Tyler would come for her. If she was gone long enough, he would come. Her hands shook uncontrollably, and the pain in her knee was agonizing, but there was no way in hell she was leaving that stall with him still out there waiting for God knows what.

“Look, I know you’re probably mad about what happened, but that was a long time ago.”

Why didn’t someone else come in to use the facilities? How was it possible she was actually trapped in the bathroom with him? Please, Tyler, please come find me . . .

The dinner that had been so satisfying and delicious now churned like an angry sea in her belly, threatening to come back up at any second. But she couldn’t give Devlin the satisfaction of knowing he’d actually made her sick, so she fought it back, the effort bringing more tears to her eyes and sweat to her brow.

“Charley,” he said in a softer voice. “I’m sorry for what I did. I’m not that guy anymore. I wish you’d let me tell you—”

The door slammed open, and Tyler’s deep voice rang out. “What the hell is going on? Who are you and where’s Charley?”

“Tyler,” she cried, the single word ripped from her throat. “Get him out of here. Please.”

From her post inside the stall, she heard the sounds of a scuffle—grunts and groans and flesh connecting with flesh. She flinched at each sound. If that monster hurt Tyler, she would kill him the second her hands stopped shaking and her knee started working again.

Then she heard the door to the room crash open again, and Tyler called for security. More scuffling, more grunts, new voices.

“This guy was hassling my girlfriend in the ladies’ room,” Tyler said.

“He was in the ladies’ room?”

“All the way in, and she’s locked in a stall.”

“I just wanted to talk to her,” Devlin said. “We’re old friends.”

“You’re no friend of hers if she had to lock a door to keep you away from her,” Tyler said.

“We can take it from here, sir, but we’ll need a statement from your girlfriend.”

Charley leaned against the wall inside the stall, taking deep breaths and trying to calm herself, but the rush of adrenaline drained from her system, leaving her shaking violently and crying hysterically. She deeply resented the tears, but the shock of the encounter had rocked her to the core.

“Charley, baby,” Tyler said softly from outside the stall. “Let me in.”

She eyed the lock and tried to get her arms to cooperate with her desire to see him, to hold him, to let him fix what was wrong inside her, but she couldn’t bring herself to do it.

“Charley, it’s okay. He’s gone. Security’s got him, and he won’t get near you again.” To Tyler’s credit, he didn’t ask who the man was or what he meant to her, but he’d probably already figured that out for himself. “Sweetheart . . . Please, I love you. Let me in. Let me help.”

The desperation she heard in his voice finally cut through the numbness. Her arms moved jerkily, her fingers clumsy until the lock finally opened with a click of metal against metal. Tyler stepped around the door, closing it and locking it behind him as he reached for her. “It’s okay,” he whispered into her hair. “I’ve got you, and everything is okay.”

She shook her head.

“Did he touch you?”

She shook her head again. Devlin’s grasp to her elbow didn’t count because he’d been trying to stop her from falling.

“Jesus, you’re shaking violently.”

“T-Tyler . . . My knee. I hurt my knee.”

“Fuck,” he said on a long exhale. “I’ll fucking kill him.”

“No,” she said, clawing at him, terrified of him leaving her alone for even a minute. In her entire life, she’d only ever felt this way once before—and she’d been alone then. Thank God she wasn’t alone this time.

“Baby, I’m not leaving you for a second, but we’ve got to get you to the hospital.”

She whimpered at the thought of another hospital, but the pain was bad enough that she couldn’t disagree.

“Would it be okay if I lifted you?”

“I-I need to use the bathroom first.” The urgent need to pee had nearly been forgotten in the chaos.

“I’ll hold you while you do.”

“Tyler . . .”

“This is no time for modesty, Charley,” he said through gritted teeth. “Let me take care of you.”

Since she didn’t have much choice in the matter, she said, “Okay.” Working together, he positioned her over the toilet without jarring her leg and pressed his lips to her hair as if she were the most precious thing in his world.

She took care of business, and he helped her to right her clothes before lifting her gingerly into his arms.

“Okay?”

Grimacing from the pain, she nodded.

He carried her from the room into a crowd of people outside the restrooms. “She’s injured,” Tyler said. “Let us through.”

“We called for police and rescue,” one of the security guys said.

Charley kept her face pressed against Tyler’s chest so she wouldn’t have to look at anyone.

“The police are going to want a statement,” the security guy said.

“Tomorrow,” Tyler replied tightly.

The ambulance ride, the emergency room, the antiseptic smells and the fear on Tyler’s face were all eerily familiar. After being put on an IV to deal with the pain, she was taken right to X-ray for a scan of her knee, and then they waited for the doctor in the tiny ER cubicle.

Through it all, Charley could not stop crying at the thought of having to relive the ordeal with her knee, not to mention the aftershocks of her encounter with Devlin.

After shedding his suit coat and rolling the sleeves of his shirt, Tyler paced the small space, anger coming off him in waves.

“Tyler.”

He came right to her.

“Sit with me.”

He did as she asked, sitting on the narrow bed and putting his arms around her. “Who was he, Charley?”

“Michael Devlin, the guy I fell for in college until I learned he was running a scam on me and a dozen other girls at school.”

“Of all the freaking people to run into on an overnight getaway.”

“As he said, what’re the odds?”

“Baby, I’m sorry this happened. I’m so filled with rage that he scared you that I want to punch a hole through the wall.”

“Don’t do that,” she said, running her thumb over the knuckles he’d bruised dealing with Devlin. “It won’t change anything.”

“Maybe not, but it would sure feel good right about now.”

She put an arm around his waist, keeping him from acting on the impulse.

“He’s the reason you’ve never had a real boyfriend, isn’t he?”

“Yes.”

“Did he hurt you back then?”

She knew he meant physically. “Not the way you think. What he did was so much worse in some ways. It was like psychological warfare. He said everything I wanted to hear, made promises he never intended to keep, and I fell for every word he said. I fell so deep I almost couldn’t find my way out of the hole when I found out it was all a bunch of shit.”

His body trembled from the rage he tried so hard to contain for her. “I want to kill him for doing that to you. I’ve never before wanted to kill another human being, but I wish I had those five minutes in the bathroom to do over again.”

“I was never so happy to hear your voice in my life, except for maybe that day at the bottom of the ravine when you came back with help.”

“I’ll always come for you, Charley. No matter what, you can count on me. Don’t ever, ever lump me in with that piece of shit in your overactive imagination, you hear me? I’d rather cut off my own arm with a bread knife than ever cause you a second of pain or heartache or—”

“Tyler.”

“What?” he asked, sounding annoyed that she’d interrupted his tirade.

“Kiss me, will you?”

Tyler did more than kiss her. He devoured her, pouring every bit of his love for her into that one kiss, and Charley felt it slide through her veins, comforting and calming her after the trauma of the encounter with Devlin.

He was her long-ago past. Tyler was her present—and her future.

“Don’t let what happened tonight take this away from us, Charley. We’ve worked too hard to get where we are to let that scum derail us.” Tyler laid his hand flat against her fast-beating heart. “Promise me, you won’t let him get to you.”

“If you weren’t here, I’d be losing it.”

“I’m here. I’ll always be here because there’s nowhere else in this world I’d rather be than with you. You have to promise me, Charley. You won’t let him hurt you any more than he already has.”

“I won’t. I promise.”

Tyler kissed her again, caressing her tongue with deep strokes of his.

A throat clearing brought them up for air.

“Pardon the interruption,” the doctor said with a grin, “but we have the results of your scan, and everything looks good. We don’t see any new tears or damage to the surgically repaired area. You probably just jarred the incision site, which would account for the pain. I’m going to write you a script for some pain meds and send you home, if that’s okay.”

Filled with relief and gratitude, Charley smiled up at Tyler when she said, “That would be perfect.”

Charley spent the entire first weekend in January in bed with Tyler—and Rufus, who’d moved in with them a week ago and made himself right at home in their bed. Last weekend had been dedicated to helping Ella move in with Gavin. This one was all theirs. Tyler had skipped the weekly workout with the running club, and they didn’t even bother to get out of bed for Sunday dinner at her parents’ home. With a howling snowstorm going on outside, they were perfectly content to hunker down in bed with nowhere to be and nothing to do except make love, sleep, shower, eat, let Rufus out and then do it all again.

“This is beyond ridiculous,” Charley said on Sunday night as she lay facedown on the bed while Tyler kissed his way down her back. “I’ve never been so slovenly in my entire life.” Because he hadn’t shaved in days, he had the starting of an actual beard, and Charley loved how it looked on him.

“I love you when you’re slovenly.” He cupped her cheeks and took a gentle bite of each one, waking her body to the drumbeat of arousal that had become so familiar to her in the last few glorious weeks.

Charley had gone back to work after the holidays, but returned to Tyler’s bed every night. Rather than drive a wedge between them, the encounter with Devlin had brought them closer together. Tyler had refused to allow her to retreat into a pit of painful memories. Rather he had forced her to stay focused on the present, which he said had nothing at all to do with the past.

And thank God for him, because she didn’t like to think about what would’ve happened if he hadn’t been there to remind her that Michael Devlin no longer had any power over her and couldn’t hurt her unless she let him. At Tyler’s urging, Charley had pressed charges against him for the incident in the bathroom. Because of his criminal record and the circumstances of his encounter with Charley, the prosecutor had assured Charley that he would be charged with disorderly conduct.

Charley tried her best not to think about him, and with Tyler demanding all her attention it was easier than it would’ve been otherwise to keep the past where it belonged. She sighed with pleasure as he ran his hands over her, stimulating every nerve ending with the reverent way he touched her.

“So when are we going to make things official around here?” he asked.

His question brought her out of the contemplative state she’d slipped into. “I thought we already were official?”

“I guess I mean when are you going to move in with me and make it super official?”

“Oh, um, like you want me to live here with you?” Charley kept her smile hidden behind her arm.

He bit the back of her shoulder, making her squeal. “Don’t mess with me, Charlotte. You know exactly what I mean by ‘live together.’”

“That’s kind of a big step.”

Before she knew what was happening, he’d picked her up and turned her over effortlessly and without jarring the leg that had recovered quickly from the events in Boston. “Are you screwing with me?”

“Yes, I think maybe I am.”

His attempt at a sinister frown was so comical that Charley started laughing and couldn’t stop. Grasping her hands, he held them over her head as he pushed into her, filling her with one deep stroke that made her sigh with pleasure.

She waited for him to move the way he always did, but he stayed lodged deep inside her, throbbing and expanding as she squirmed beneath him, trying to spur him to action.

“You’re moving in with me,” he said.

She looked up at him, memorizing every detail of his fierce expression as he gazed at her. “Okay.”

Her easy capitulation made him stagger. “Really?”

“Really.”

“And you’re staying forever once you officially move in.”

“Okay.”

“How did the most difficult girl in the world become so easy?”

“She fell in love with you. Does that count as number three hundred?”

“I think it’s three hundred and one,” he said before he sealed the deal with a kiss. “I love you, Charlotte Abbott. You’ve made me so happy.”

She reached up to place her hands on his face, loving the scrape of his whiskers under her palms. “I love you, too.”

“Three oh two. It’s gonna take ages to get to a million.”

“I’m not doing anything the rest of my life. Are you?”

Surging into her, he said, “I hope to be doing you for the rest of my life.”

“Such a gentleman to the rest of the world and such a dirty, dirty boy with me.”

“You love when I’m dirty.”

“Mmm, yes I do, but then I love you all the time.”

“Three oh three,” he said, drawing a smile from her as he picked up the pace, taking them both to the stars and then back to earth where he caught her, giving her a warm, soft, safe place to land.