her lips. “Look, I need to tell you something.” She swallowed and took a deep breath. “I don’t know about you, but this whole thing...us...feels really good. I don’t know exactly what you think about it. I mean, I know you like me well enough... as far as...” She gestured to the bed. “But I just want you to know how I feel. What I feel. I don’t expect you to return the sentiment, I mean, it would be nice if you did, but we haven’t known each other that long and I don’t want to...” She sighed and dropped her forehead against his chest. “I suck at this.” She mumbled into his shirt, but a second later, she pulled back. “Here’s the deal.” She looked him right in the eyes. “I love you. Yes, I said it. I know it’s fast. Way too fast, but you have a way of getting under a girl’s skin. There you have it.” Her double blink signaled the end of her speech and they stared at each other. For many long seconds.
Troy was surprised he hadn’t fallen over yet. She loved him? Him? No woman had stuck around long enough to feel that emotion or say those words. He was too closed off, too introverted. Too used to being alone.
Her brows furrowed. “Are you going to say anything or have I completely ruined a great thing?”
What the hell could he say? Yeah, sure, he’d seen the signs. He observed people for a living, but hearing her say the words tilted his world completely off its axis. He shook his head, still totally at a loss. He had a new father who happened to be a man he truly loved and respected and now he had this? Was he dreaming and this whole thing would slip away with the ring of an alarm clock?
“Troy. You’re scaring me.”
Her earnest eyes gazed into his. He pushed some hair off her cheek and shook his head again. “You love me?” he asked. He laughed, a burst of joy that erupted from his gut and spread through every cell. “I knew I really liked you around the second season of The Only Way, but I also realized I didn’t know you.”
Her hopeful expression faded.
“Because you can’t know someone watching them play a television or movie character. You can’t be in love with a fictional person or someone you don’t know. But when you introduced yourself to me on the red carpet, minutes away from dying... That’s when I fell in love with you.” His meaning hit home and her eyes widened. A wobbly smile touched her lips.
“I think you’re the most amazing woman I’ve ever met. I think you’re beautiful and talented and funny as hell and I don’t know what I did to deserve your love, but I’m sure as hell glad I got it.” He kissed her gently. “I would do anything for you. Anything. You’ve given me all the things that have been missing in my life for more years than I want to count.”
A tear slid down her temple and Troy gently wiped it away with his thumb. “You’d do anything?” she asked, her voice barely a whisper.
He nodded. “Anything.”
“Will you make love to me?”
Like she had to ask... “I’ve got news for you. That’s a given.”
Her infectious grin widened. “Oh really?” She wrinkled her nose in that way she had and Troy went down for the count. “Is that headline news or just gossip column stuff?”
“CNN all the way.” He brushed his lips across hers and the kiss turned slow, deep and heartfelt. After long minutes of the steamy wet connection, Julie held his face and pulled back from his mouth. “Seriously?” she asked. “You love me?”
That she had to ask amazed him. What man wouldn’t fall head over heels in love with her? “Yeah,” he said, nuzzling her cheek. “I love you. Always will.” Now was the time to tell her he was a private investigator, but she reached up and kissed him so sweetly, so softly that he couldn’t pull away. Didn’t want to stop the incredible feeling of having her in his arms, at his fingertips. Troy angled his mouth along hers and kissed her deeper. He cupped her head and held her steady as he devoured her mouth in another long, slow kiss that stole every thought from his brain. Julie rubbed against him and the semi-erection that had sparked as soon as he walked in the room and