“I’m in love with you, Ally.”
I stopped glaring and my heart flipped.
“What?” I whispered.
He didn’t repeat himself.
He said something a lot longer and almost (but not quite) as good.
“I knew it could happen when you were cool when I told you about my dad and you wrapped your hand around my thigh. I definitely knew it could happen when you went wild for me on my stairs. Shit went down and it took a while but I knew it did happen when you cried in my arms after Sadie had her thing. Anyone who would feel that badly about being mean and care so deeply about another human being’s f**ked up life I knew was the woman for me. You gave me a run for my money, and once I stopped finding it a pain in my ass and started enjoying it, I did nothing but. I enjoyed every f**kin’ second, Ally. And every f**kin’ second I’ve never doubted how I was feeling. And just to be clear, how I was feeling, every day through this game we’ve been playing, was that I was falling deeper in love with you.”
Holy crap.
“Seriously?” I breathed.
“Seriously,” he declared firmly.
I stared up at him, my heart beating hard, my stomach melting, my hands itching to touch him, words getting clogged in my throat.
With effort, I was able to let some out and the ones that came were, “I’ll go to Ava and Luke’s wedding with you.”
When I was done speaking, I watched him close his eyes then watched as he dropped his head so his forehead was against mine.
Whoa.
Wow.
God.
Ren Zano loved me.
I got choked up again and put a hand to his chest, sliding it up to curl around the side of his neck. At the same time I lifted my other hand and wrapped it around his wrist at my jaw.
He lifted his head an inch and opened his beautiful eyes.
And there it was in all its glory.
God.
He loved me.
I so totally didn’t see that coming.
But I was over the freaking moon that it did.
“Maybe I’m a little whacked,” I whispered.
He said nothing which meant he agreed, just maybe not about the “a little” part.
Suddenly, for the first time in a very long time, I was uncertain.
But I’d very nearly f**ked this up by being emotional and maybe a bit stupid (okay, maybe not “maybe” about that last part).
I had to stop doing that.
Therefore, I asked quietly, “Don’t you think it’s a little weird, a woman saying she fell in love with a man the first night they met?”
“No,” he answered immediately as his eyes got warmer and more beautiful.