Forbidden Bride - Penny Wylder Page 0,14

imagined that he would offer me Marketing Director.”

Nicola takes a bite of her pizza and looks away. “Well you’re certainly a good fit. But thank you for telling me that. I really believe in the company, and I didn’t want—”

“Me to ignore everything about my job while trying to be with you?” I finish for her.

“Yeah.”

I smile at her. “Don’t worry, I fully plan on doing both.” She looks away again, and I have to ask. “Have you changed your mind? If you have, I won’t hold it against you.”

“Do you think launching a sorbet would be good in the South? That might be nice and refreshing for the summer months. I could do something with lemon.”

“Nicola.”

She looks at me. “What?”

“You didn’t answer the question.”

“And you didn’t answer the one Mom asked you earlier about why you left and why you came back.”

There it is. There’s anger in her gaze. But I can take the heat. If I didn’t think I could, then I certainly wouldn’t be here. “I’m back for you,” I say. “Four years ago you promised me all of you. No matter how long it took. And I was a coward about it. I wasn’t ready, but I am now.”

Nicola is perfectly still, looking at me with something like disbelief and awe. But she says nothing.

“I’m here to claim what you offered. You said that you wanted to marry me, and that’s what I plan on doing, Nicola. I’m going to marry you, and I’m never going to walk away again.”

5

Nicola

I can’t recall the number of times that I’ve wished for Tristan to come back into my life and say the exact words that he’s saying right now. That he wants me. Wants to marry me. I just wish it had been back then when things were simpler. It would have been so easy then.

“We should go,” I say, standing from the table. “I’ve got a lot of work to do.” I don’t wait before walking out of Callie’s and into the cold January air. Tristan is behind me in a second, and he catches me by the arm. “Is that it?”

“Is what it?”

He laughs, backing me against the wall. “I just told you I came back to Leighton City to marry you, and all you said was need to go back to the office.”

I shake my head. It’s impossible to breathe with him this close. But maybe he doesn’t understand what this will do to everyone. To him and to me. To his relationship with my dad. But I do. I’ve had four years of thinking about every single outcome and possibility. “I don’t know what you want me to say.”

“I want you to tell me what you’re thinking,” he says, face level with mine. “I want you to tell me to stop, if that’s what you want. It’s been a long time, and I’m man enough to know that things might have changed for you. I can handle it, if you want me to walk away.”

Nothing comes out of my mouth. I try to force out the words, to tell him that I don’t want this, but nothing happens. The truth is written so deeply in me that my body won’t betray that even if I try to force it to. Dammit.

“But if you don’t tell me to stop,” he says, “I’m not backing down. I’m not going to let you go, Nicola, because you were right. You were right that night.”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” I say, that lie manages to escape and it burns my lips.

One of Tristan’s eyebrows lifts. “No? I’m calling bullshit.”

“What do you remember?”

His green eyes are brimming with fierce emotion, his cheeks pink with the cold air, but neither of us move away. “I remember you waiting for me in the kitchen in a dress that made me so hard. I remember you letting me touch you for the first time. I remember you painting the future you imagined for us and promising that I was it for you, no matter how long it took. I remember you saying that you knew what you wanted and that it would never change.” His voice drops low and he breathes the next words into my ear. “I remember you saying that you wanted my cock to be the only one you ever felt. And I’m going to deliver on that promise.”

Placing my hands on his chest, I slowly push him back from me. “You know what I remember?” I