The Trouble With Love: A Sex, Love & Stiletto Novel

“I remember every damned thing,” he continued, gaze still straight ahead. “I remember how I thought you were so shy up until our first date when I realized you had a bawdy, brash sense of humor. I still remember the jolt I got when you first touched my hand. I remember our first kiss, our first fight.” He took a deep breath. “I remember our last kiss, our last fight.”

“Just that I figure at some point, some guy must have been able to make you smile. And I always wondered if it was the same guy that made you stop.”

“Twelve Days of Exes…and One Forever Love.”
His eyes found hers. “Emma.”
She smiled. “Camille let me do a last-minute change. This was printed days before you came here with your pyrotechnics and secret ring. It’s about you, Cassidy. It’s only you from here on out.”
He smiled back, his eyes looking suspiciously moist. “Wrong. From here on out, it’s only us.”

He pulled back again to press his lips against her ears. “I love you. I love you so much.”
She nuzzled his neck. “I love you, too.”

Emma’s heart melted and flew at the same time. And then slowly, deliberately, she lowered to her knees so they were at eye level.
Her hands reached out tentatively, her fingertips touching his cheeks before she cupped his face. Cassidy’s eyes closed.
Emma leaned forward and brushed her mouth against his. “I love you. I’ve probably never stopped loving you, which is so annoying.”

That proposal was no scheming power play for your dad’s company, Emma. That was the real deal. I was simply a boy who asked the girl he loved to spend the rest of her life with him.”
Her eyes watered. “I didn’t believe you. I belittled it. I belittled us.”

His thumbs brushed over her lips. “There’s nothing rational about love.”
Love.
He loved her.

“Emma,” he whispered. “If I’d known you wanted to marry me…that you’d changed your mind…If I’d gotten even one of your phone calls, I would have moved heaven and earth to be there that day. I wanted to be your husband more than anything, Emma.”

And then he put his heart all the way on the line. “I love you, Emma.”
She stared at him, torn between immense joy and heart-wrenching pain.
He kept talking. “And you should know that I’ve completely veered off script from the grand plan the guys devised to win you back, but I’m just going with my gut here. I love you. I love you, and I want that to be enough, because my love is so much stronger than the fire display or the poem that Sam wanted me to write or the song that Jake thought I should sing….”

He wanted Emma as his. And he wanted to be hers.
He loved her. Fiercely.
Perhaps he’d always loved her.