that. And you’re right. It was bullshit. I feel so off balance sometimes when it comes to you, but those are my issues. My insecurities.”
My heart completely melted. I pulled back to look at him. “What can I do to help?” I asked him softly.
He shot me a mischievous grin. “Love me. And keep on loving me. Even when I’m an asshole. I’m learning to leave the past behind, but I might fuck up another time or two before I get it right.”
I put my palm to his scruffy cheek. “Owen, you’re the most amazing man I know, and you’re rarely an asshole. In fact, I’m pretty sure this is the first time you’ve ever really been a complete jerk.”
Like I hadn’t made my share of mistakes in the past with him? I could forgive him some mistakes, too.
“I’ve wanted to tell you how much I love you for a long time,” Owen said earnestly. “I just wasn’t sure you were ready to hear it. Or if you felt the same way.”
I smiled. “Same here. I knew that you cared about me—”
“Baby, I more than cared,” he interrupted. “I’ve been completely, madly in love with you since the first time I saw you at the clinic. It was like that old high-school crush went into overdrive the minute I saw you again.”
“I don’t think mine ever really ended,” I explained. “It just got put on hold for a very long time.” I let out a long sigh as I added, “Jax was there for me when I needed a friend, and now I know he was there on the worst night of my life. He helped me, he encouraged me, but there’s nothing else there, Owen. The conversations we’ve had are still in the app. You can read every one of them.”
He shook his head. “I don’t need to read them. In my heart, I knew the truth, but I’m so damn in love with you that he just seemed like a threat. Someday, I’m sure I’ll thank him for what he did. Just don’t ask me to do it right now.”
I laughed because he seemed so disgruntled. Maybe he wouldn’t warm up to Jax tomorrow, but I had a feeling they would be friends someday. “Just don’t kill him. That would definitely cause a huge rift in the Sinclair family.”
“I love you, Layla,” he said huskily. “Granted, I was crazy about you in high school, but the way I love you now isn’t an infatuation.” He paused before he rasped, “Marry me, Layla. Put me out of my misery and promise me forever.”
My heart stopped, and then it started again at a frantic pace.
“Okay,” he rumbled. “I think I did that all wrong. I know it was supposed to be a question, not a demand, and I should have the ring in my hand right now, but I really wanted to give you something that was one-of-a-kind—”
I stopped his flow of words with my mouth. I couldn’t speak, but I gave him a kiss that told him what my answer was going to be.
“Yes,” I said as I finally released his lips. “I don’t need a ring right now, Owen, and I’ll pretend it was a question. I want to be with you for the rest of my life. I don’t even want to imagine a future without you in it.”
He shot me what looked like a very relieved smile. “You won’t have a future without me in it. The moment you told me that you loved me, you were pretty much doomed.”
I sighed as he gave me a sweet, tender kiss of promise.
He promised me laughter.
He promised me love.
He promised me passion.
He promised me respect.
He promised he’d never want anyone else.
Owen had promised everything in a single kiss.
As he slowly lifted his head, I murmured, “I love you, Owen Sinclair. Take me to bed and I’ll show you just how much.”
“Dammit, Layla. Please. Not the fuck-me voice. It kills me,” he grumbled as he hopped up and lifted me gently off the sofa.
As he cradled me in his arms softly, I swatted him on the shoulder. “That is not my fuck-me voice,” I informed him. In a gentler tone, I murmured, “That’s my love-me voice.”
Our gazes locked as he carried me up the stairs. His eyes softened as he answered, “You’ll never need that voice, because there will never be a moment during any day in our future that I won’t love you, Layla.”
My heart was skittering as