Weston’s face has gone deadly serious, and some of the heat that’s been building in my core leaches out and onto the ground. “I didn’t ask—what?”

“You won’t be eligible for the scholarship.”

“Why not? I wasn’t going to apply for it anyway. That would be unfair as hell, given the circumstances, and I can pay—” His slow grin, the sparkle in his green eyes, stops the words short.

“You won’t be eligible because I came here to ask you something else.”

My heart leaps into my throat. If he only knew how many times I’ve picked my phone up, ready to call him back and tell him how sorry I am for being so dismissive, how much I regret second-guessing him...

It’s too good to be true.

It has to be. 

“Ask away.”

Weston steps forward, and I inhale the scent of him, all soap and spice and determination. “Be mine.”

I suck in a deep breath. This is how it all started, only now there’s so much more between us that it hangs heavy in the air. Weston’s hands on my hips, Weston’s grip around my hair, pulling me back into position, Weston taking me, claiming me, filling me in every way I could have wished for.

“I don’t—” I take a minute to steady myself, squaring my shoulders. All of this tumbled toward disaster because I jumped in with both feet, not knowing all the details, not knowing how far I could fall. And I fell hard. “I don’t think I can accept—”

“Oh, just wait and—”

“—without knowing what the catch is.”

Weston’s smile is radiating hope, and when the words hit him it turns into a sexy grin that has me melting right there in the Anderson Law entrance hall, with all my classmates walking by, hurrying to get to the class I’m about to be late for. 

I couldn’t care any less.

“Here’s the catch.” He spreads his hands wide, grinning even wider. 

“You’re the catch?”

“The catch is, you’d have to be prepared to spend your days with a man who doesn’t know when to quit. With a man who wants what he wants and goes after it, even if it’s risky, even if some might call it shameless. You’d have to be ready to be on my arm in public. And you’d have to be ready to accept the perks.”

“There are perks?”

“No more law school tuition, for one.”

“I’m not quitting law school.”

“I said no more tuition. I’m not letting you saddle yourself with loans when I have more than enough money to handle all of that. Plus…” He looks to the side, like he’s tallying it up. “Everything I have will be yours.”

“All of it?” I gasp.

“All of it.”

“You know what, Weston Grant?”

“What?”

“I’ve never cared about those things.”

He looks deeply into my eyes, the smile turning back to seriousness. “I know. That’s why I can’t let you waste your life lazing about on tropical islands.”

“Even though you have more money than God?”

“I don’t think Juliet James could ever be satisfied unless she was doing something worthwhile.”

It hits me then that I won’t have to apply for the biggest firms, working for clients who are only interested in lawsuits that can make them the most money. My paycheck won’t have to be my first consideration.

“I could still have a law career?”

“I’d insist on it.” He frowns a little, considering. “Unless there’s something else you’d rather do.”

“I wouldn’t have to settle for the highest bidder.” The words that come out of my mouth are almost a whisper. Weston hears them anyway.

“You won’t have to settle for anything. Ever again.”

I burst out laughing, my voice ringing through the entrance hall. Heads swivel toward us, and I can see from my fleeting glances at their expressions that most of the people who are rushing by recognize Weston Grant from his big appearance for the first years. 

“What’s so funny?”

“It’s tempting,” I say between giggles. “It’s so tempting. But Weston—”

“Yes?”

“You didn’t have to make me an offer at all.” I swallow hard. “I missed you so…so damn much.” A single tear squeezes out from the corner of my eye, and I reach up to flick it away. I’m not going to fall apart here—not now, not after I’ve kept it together so well since Monday night. “Four days!” I laugh. “It seems ridiculous, to feel this horrible, but—”

Then Weston’s hands are wrapped around me, tilting my face up to his. “The last four days have been the longest days in my life.” His tone is fierce, unrelenting. “I’ve been on two benders in four days, and do you know what? None of it made me feel any better. I feel like shit without you. And this isn’t even about me. I’d feel like shit forever if that’s what would make you happy. I just couldn’t bear the thought of not being next to you. If this is the last time I see you, then I—”

I throw my arms around his neck, pulling his face toward mine, and kiss him—hard and hot and with everything I have. Everything. 

Weston Grant tastes like home. He tastes like the future. He tastes like he’s mine.

When I finally pull back, there’s a strange silence in the entrance hall, but I dismiss it. It’s not important. I suck in a breath. “Please, don’t ever leave me, Weston. I don’t want to be without you. I don’t know what came over me, but I’m done living a life without you in it. I don’t want that for another day. Another hour. Another minute.”

“Another second?” He grins again, and then I’m lost in his kiss, lost in the heat between the two of us. 

I never want to find my way out.

Weston is the one to break the kiss. He lingers with his arms around my waist for another long moment, his green eyes becoming my entire universe, and then he pulls back, straightening his tie.

“Now that that’s settled—”

I laugh out loud. “How romantic.”

“I think you’re late for class.”

“I can miss it.”

Weston shakes his head. “Oh, no. You can’t miss this. It’s the first class of your new life.” He curls his fingers through mine and raises my hand to his lips. “But I want you to know one thing.”

“What is it?”

“I’ll be waiting for you when you get done.”

Sweet relief unfolds in my chest. “Good.”

Weston leans in. “You belong to me now, angel. For always.”

Heaven doesn’t begin to describe it.