“There has to be a way.”

Bernadette sighs on the other end of the line. I can see her, pressing her lips together in a little frown, her face lit by the glow of her computer. Never mind that it’s mid-afternoon, and Bernadette has an office on the other corner of the building with huge windows and plenty of light. “Isa, I’m not seeing—”

“Look again, Bernadette. Go through everything. Go through personal assets. I don’t need enough to purchase the building outright. I think, if I play my cards right, I should be able to skate by with the down payment at this point.”

“Your investors—”

“Will love it. They’ll love it, okay? Call me back when you find something.”

She takes in a breath.

“Even if I don’t want to hear it, Bernadette. I need you to try one more time.”

“Okay.”

“Isabella.” 

The voice at my door startles me so much that I drop the handset. “What are you doing here?”

“Isabella?” Bernadette’s voice is small and soft, coming from the handset, and I scoop it back up.

“I’ll talk to you later, Bernadette.” Then I put it back into the base and look back up into Jasper’s eyes. He’s standing in the doorway, breathing hard, like he ran here from his own office. I know that’s not what he did, but if he didn’t run here at his absolute top speed, why the hell is he breathing like that? I stand up from behind my desk, searching his face for a clue. “Is everything okay? You look—”

“Isabella, I love you.”

My heart soars as my gut drops to my toes. “Are you having a stroke?”

“No.” He steps into the office, not bothering to close the door behind him. I’d bet everything I own—not any of my money, since I might not currently have enough of that to do anything without him—but anything else that Angelique is frozen at her desk, listening to every word. “I’m not. I love you.”

“You can’t—”

He comes to my desk, and everything in me aches to touch him, aches to leap across the desk into his arms. But I’m frozen on the other side. I can’t do anything but watch this play out. “I can.” His voice is sure, firm, uncompromising. “Listen—I don’t understand it. I don’t understand a thing, but I know I’ve fallen for you, and I had to tell you. There was no question in my mind when I left my office that I had to tell you, and there’s no question now. It doesn’t make any sense.” His grin illuminates his face, and everything in me goes hot. “It doesn’t make any sense, but nothing about the way you make me feel makes sense, and I don’t care.”

I take a deep breath and let it out. “You’re babbling. You’re not making sense.”

Then he’s around the desk, both hands around my face, and his blue eyes are so intense in the golden afternoon light that the image of them, that silvery ribbon around his pupils, the blue that’s like the ocean one moment and the sky the next, is burned into my mind. I’m never going to forget the look on his face right now. “We’ve been playing with each other since the first minute we met.” Jasper’s voice is a low hum reverberating in my core. “I’m done. I want to be with you. I love you. I don’t know what that means for—for the long-term, or for you. But I love you, and I want you to be mine. What do you say to that?”

I’m struggling to catch my breath. My skin is warming under his hands. I want to slam my office door shut and get out of these clothes, strip him out of his, and straddle him while he sits in my office chair. “Is this another game? Is this—is this your next move?”

A serious expression flashes across his face, and I realize it’s the first time either of us has acknowledged that we are playing with each other. That this didn’t start out as anything real, and it’s become something more. “It’s not a game.” A grin spreads across his face. “Unless you want it to be.”

“What does that even mean?” I let out a breathless giggle and clap my hand across my mouth. I’m not going to transform into the kind of woman who is always breathlessly giggling because the sexiest man she’s ever seen is inches from her face, looking like he wants to start kissing her right now and never stop. 

“I want to be with you.” He’s clear with every single word. “Do you want the same thing? Do you want to be with me?”

I don’t have a strategy for this. I don’t have a plan in mind. In fact, telling him the truth in this moment will set fire to everything I’ve been planning for Jasper Pace. It will mean the end of my revenge plans. It will mean trusting him to do the right thing with my mother’s building. But my thoughts are whirling in my head and I can’t come up with a lie. I can’t even come up with a witty response.

“Yes.”

He leans in, and I wrap my arms around his neck. “But it—oh my god, Jasper, it’s so foolish. This isn’t what I planned—”

He laughs, low and gentle. “When have we ever done anything according to plan?”

Then his lips are on mine, soft and possessive and sweet, and I melt into his arms. My entire body glows with it, with the way he’s holding me, and for once I don’t second-guess anything at all. For once I don’t make any devious plans. I let him kiss me, giving myself over to him, totally and completely. I thought I’d been doing that all afternoon at his penthouse, when he fucked me to a level of satisfaction I’ve never experienced before and will only experience again if I can be with him.

A slow clap comes from the doorway, but it takes several heartbeats for it to register. Even then, I can’t wrench myself away from Jasper, so I let the kiss come to an end naturally, slowly, while the applause continues.

Angelique is standing in the doorway, a folder in her hand, beaming at me. “That was quite the show. Is there going to be an encore?”

Jasper kisses me on the cheek and gently disentangles himself from me. Then he strolls out the door, smiling at Angelique. “You’ll have to wait and see, won’t you?”