Melting the Ice Queen ✔️

~4~

I'm in love with you.

Scott's words hung in the air, gathering strength like a Caribbean hurricane and threatening to knock Alicia flat. Love? How was that possible when they'd designed and nurtured the perfect no-strings-attached relationship? When she'd sworn never to get too close to anyone? When the people who'd used the dreaded L-word with her had always been the ones who'd hurt her the worst?

The silence expanded, engulfing them both in a nerve-stretching tension that threatened to snap her in two. Neither of them seemed capable of either speaking or looking away. They might have stood there until the apocalypse, but something in his expression softened and warmed into a glow of adoration she didn't deserve.

Taking his time about it, he eased closer and cupped her face in one gentle hand. She wanted to run...to hide...to melt into his arms and believe.

Paralysis kept her from doing anything.

"I'm in love with you," he said again.

That did it. Her body gave an involuntary jerk back and away, as though she'd grazed the blue fire of her stove and blistered her thumb. "I heard you the first time."

"Say something."

Jesus, she couldn't breathe. "I don't know what to say."

"How about the truth?"

"And what's that?"

"That you love me, too."

It wasn't a question, which was good because she didn't have an answer. All she had were denials, rebuttals and the rules, which had clearly been broken.

"This is a casual relationship—"

His lips thinned with intransigence. "It was. Now it's not."

"—and we're both focused on our careers. We don't have time—"

"I want to make time. My career has already taken up enough of my life, thanks."

"—and I just don't understand why you're breaking the rules—" she continued, her rising desperation making her shrill.

"Screw the rules," he said calmly.

That sent her right over the edge. How could he be so matter-of-fact when she was falling apart? "Where is this coming from? What's it about?"

They were exactly the wrong questions.

Catching one of her hands, he pressed a lingering kiss to her palm and held on when she strained away. And, oh, God, he stared at her with those gleaming eyes until she couldn't turn away. She had to remind herself that men could never be trusted, not even this one, no matter how earnest he looked right now.

He pressed her hand to his bare chest, letting her feel the relentless pounding of his heartbeat. "This is about me missing you when you're gone. This is about me wanting to come home to you every night—"

"Don't, Scott."

"—and eat dinner with you and brush my teeth at the sink next to yours. I want to call you during the day just to say hi, and I want to know what the hell happened to you when you were a kid that makes you so afraid now."

She shook her head and kept shaking it. No. Not that. Never any of that, especially that last thing.

Unbelievably, he wasn't done with her yet.

"I want you to move in with me." He took a deep breath. "I want to marry you."

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