Court

The last thing I expected when I opened my door was Rin.

Fuming.

Wearing the blue sundress from Florence.

The volume of her rage dipped when she took in my appearance, which was sad and dejected—I’d come home, put on sleep pants and a T-shirt, and laid on the couch in the silence, contemplating every mistake, one by one.

But in a breath, she slammed her anger down between us again, her face twisting. “Are you fucking crazy?”

I frowned. “I—”

“I mean it, Court,” she said, pushing me in the chest. I let the blow shift me, and I took a step back to let her by. “Have you lost your goddamn mind?”

I pushed the door closed, still frowning. “How did you find out?”

“Bianca.”

My frown flattened. “I fucking fired her.”

Rin blinked. “You what?”

“I fired her this morning.”

“And then you quit.”

“And then I quit.”

“Why?” she shouted, her anger cracking back into place. “Why would you do this? This is your career. This is David you’re walking away from. Jesus, Court—did you think this would fix what you’ve done? Are you trying to manipulate me into coming back? Because I told you—”

“That’s not why—”

“—I am through. I can’t do this anymore. You’re driving me crazy and you’re driving yourself crazy and now—”

“Rin, stop—”

“And now you’ve ruined your career and mine, and—”

“Will you just—”

“—and you just keep hurting me. I can’t be responsible for you quitting the museum. I can’t. You can’t put that on me, Court. I can’t handle any more!”

The pressure in my chest fissured, and I blew like Vesuvius. “Goddammit, Rin, I am just fucking trying to do the right thing! You were right. You were fucking right—I’m an asshole, okay? All I want is to make you happy, but I keep fucking it up over and over again and I can’t stop hurting you because I am so fucked up and I don’t know what to do to make it right. I don’t even know how to tell you that I love you. It was the one thing I should have said yesterday, the one goddamn thing, and I fucked that up too. You don’t have to love me back—I can’t ask you to give me something I don’t deserve—but I’ll love you enough for the both of us, I swear it. Just marry me. Let me fix this, let me try—”

The words broke in my throat as it closed, as I dropped to my knees at her feet, my heart jackhammering against my breastbone.

And I reached for her, gripped her hips, searched her face, my voice rough and thick when I spoke, “Everyone wants something, and I want you. Everyone has a price, and mine is your happiness. I couldn’t give you my heart, Rin, because it was already yours. You’ve changed me—elementally, fundamentally—and that man, the one you made, is the man I want to be. The man who loves you. I love y—”

She dropped in my arms, throwing herself against my chest, our lips connecting painfully, then with the sweetest relief, with a breath that filled my lungs and heart and soul. And I wrapped my arms around her, crushed her in my grip, kissed her like I’d die without her. Because truth be told, it was how I felt, the overwhelming emotion pulling me under, and I was only tethered to the world by her arms around my neck and her lips against mine.

She broke the kiss to hold me with the desperation I held her with.

“I love you,” I whispered the words I’d wanted to speak yesterday into her hair. “I’m sorry. Forgive me.”

“I will. I do.”

I closed my eyes, flexing my arms, breathing her in.

“Court—” she grunted. “Can’t…breathe.”

I relaxed my grip in alarm, pulling back to hold her face. “Are you all right?”

She nodded, smiling, though her eyes were still full of tears. “You quit your job for me.”

“I had to. It doesn’t matter without you.”

“You love me.”

I nodded, kissing her gently. “I love you.”

“And you want to marry me. For real.”

I nodded again. My thumb shifted on her cheek. “I do.”

“You’re crazy.”

“I know.”

“And you’re an asshole.”

“I know that, too.”

“You can’t keep getting out of being an asshole by being an even bigger asshole.”

“If you say so,” I joked.

“And you need to beg to get your job back.”

I frowned at that. “I’m not going back there. Not without you.”

“I’m just an intern. This is your life.”

I shrugged. “I mean, you realize I don’t actually have to work, right?”

“That’s not the point. You can’t quit for me.”

“Fine then. If it makes you feel better, you can think I didn’t quit just for you. I told him if you left, I’d leave, and I told you once before—I keep my promises.” She softened, and I found myself smiling. “Besides, I couldn’t stand working with him anymore.”

“Well then, I guess we don’t have to get married after all,” she said, towing my heart into the depths of my chest.

“No,” I agreed, hoping I didn’t sound as crushed as I felt, “I guess not.”

“Of course, if we wanted to, that’s a different story.”

My brow quirked as her smile spread. “Why?” I asked, my breath shallow and cautious. “Do you want to?”

She nodded, her smiling lip pinned between her teeth. “I kinda do. Does that make me as crazy as you?”

I pulled her closer. “Crazier. Have you met me?”

Rin laughed, cupping my jaw, my stubble rasping against her fingers. “I have. And I can’t help but love you.”

I drew a sharp breath at the words, not sure if I’d imagined them. “You…you don’t have to say it just because I did.”

“I didn’t. I said it because it’s true. You’re irrational and infuriating and demanding and brilliant and absolutely perfect. And I love you even though you’re a brute.”

I let her go to reach into my pocket for that little velvet box that held the promise I couldn’t bear to be parted from. And then I took one knee with a thumping heart. With damp hands, I opened the box, extended it to her, looked into her eyes and spoke the truth. “Marry me, Rin. I’ve known since the moment we found this ring that I wanted to be the man to give it to you, and I’ve carried it around every day since. Because even though I couldn’t admit it to myself, my heart knew I loved you. Marry me even though I’m a brute, because I will protect you fiercely. Marry me even though I’m blind, and I will follow your lead. Marry me even though I’m wrong because I don’t want to be right. I only want you.”

She reached for me, pulled me into her, kissed me with love and devotion drawn from the very heart of her, a kiss that spoke the words that granted my wishes and sealed my fate.

When she broke away, she pressed her forehead to mine, her eyes closed and ebony lashes wet from her tears.

“Will you?” I whispered.

“Yes,” she said on a sigh, leaning back to add with a smile, “in two years because we are not getting divorced.”

I angled for her lips. “Anything you want, Rin. Anything,” I breathed. And I sealed that promise with a searing kiss.

It was the most honest kiss of my life.

I slipped the ring onto her finger. Marveled at the utter rightness of it on her hand. Took her hand, towed her to my bedroom, and then it was her turn to kiss me.

She pulled me into her, the promise of the ring on her finger echoed in the sweetness of her lips, spoken to my heart. I laid her back, felt the shape of her body impressed against mine. Ran my hand up her thigh when it shifted to make room for my hips, sliding that dress—my favorite dress on the planet—up her legs.

And I kissed her. I kissed her from the depths of my heart, kissed her with the knowledge that I’d almost lost her. Kissed her and told her without words how much I loved her. How sorry I was. How grateful I was that she loved me too.

I backed up and pulled my shirt off.

“Naked,” I breathed, sliding my pants over the curve of my ass, down my thighs and to the ground as she watched, tugging her dress off. I reached for her hips, hooking my fingers in the waist of her panties and sliding them down her never-ending legs.

I climbed up her body, spreading her thighs, my eyes down. “I love you, Rin,” I said, my voice heavy and rough. “I’ll give you everything I have to give. My heart’s already yours.”

She reached for my face and cupped my cheek with her left hand. “I’ll protect it. I’ll keep it safe,” she said, and I closed my eyes in reverence and relief and release, knowing her words were truth.

I turned my face to press a kiss to her palm, and that hand wearing my ring, her ring, moved down my body, reaching for my cock, her fingers closing around its length. I watched her, watched her stroke me with that symbol of always on her finger.

I pumped into her hand as I stroked her with mine, leaning in to kiss her.

She guided me to the very edge of her, pressed the tip of me into the heat of her. And I rocked my hips, filled her up, sighed from the deepest reaches of my lungs when I was nestled between her thighs.

Safe. A flex of my hips. Love. I breathed her name. Mine. I lowered my body to hers. Forever. I caged her face with my arms, slipped my hands into her hair.

A wave of my body, and I whispered that I loved her, the benediction breathed back from her, slipping through me, winding around my heart.

And I gave myself to her, and she gave herself to me. And when I let myself go, I realized I was free.