Page 109 of Have To Be Mine

36

KRISTA

He said all the right things. And he did it all while staring into my very soul. My heart was fluttering and jumping around. I was trying to think of the right words. It had to be right. I had the last twenty-four hours to think about this speech and I forgot all of it. The moment was so perfect.

And then he started laughing at me. I flinched and leaned back, pulling my hands away. I had half a mind to slap him. He was laughing? I just ripped open my chest and let him see all of me at my most vulnerable and now he was laughing at me?

“What the hell?” I muttered.

He reached up and held my face in his hands, rain streaming between us.

“Krista, you are so many things. Fierce. Terrifying. Gorgeous. Merciless. Gentle. Mean as hell. Sexy. Mine,” he finished with a growl that sent heat straight through my core. “But you are not a fairytale princess. I never thought you were even for a second. You’re not a damsel. You’re a reckoning. My reckoning.”

He kissed me so hard it made me dizzy. This brilliant, infuriating, beautiful man knew me better than anyone. He’d seen every ugly, broken part of me and he was still choosing me. He wanted me. Not some fantasy version. Not the woman I thought I needed to be. Just me.

I’d never dreamed a love like this could find me. I’d convinced myself I wasn’t built for it. In my mind, something inside me was fundamentally wrong, too damaged to deserve this kind of tenderness. But here he was, holding my face like I was precious, kissing me like I was his entire world. I had never imagined that little old me could ever hold the attention of a massive personality like Dash.

He pulled back, still holding my face in his hands. His eyes were kind, but his jaw was set with determination. “I was lost before you, Krista. I’ve been lost since my dad died. And now? I’m planted firmly right here. With you. You’ve cleared my vision. I feel like I see the entire world in a different light. I’m a new man. A better man.”

I was crying. I couldn’t stop. I had shed more tears in the last week than I had my entire life. It felt good. Cathartic. Everything was perfect.

“I love you,” I said, the words tumbling out. “I’m so in love with you it scares the hell out of me. But I want to try. I want to figure this out with you, even if I’m terrible at it. Even if I mess it up a thousand times. People always say let your heart lead. I want to try that.”

“I love you too.” He kissed me again, softer this time. “And you’re going to mess it up. So am I. That’s what people do. But we’ll figure it out together. We know how to work together. That’s huge. Everything else is easy.”

Then he took my hand and pulled me to my feet. “Let’s go.”

We started walking back toward the hotel. I looked down at my feet, watching the pretty gold sandals get completely ruined by the puddles.

“I’m destroying these sandals,” I said with a laugh. “My ugly sandals would have been better for this kind of thing.”

“We’ll buy you new ones. Pretty ones and ugly ones. Whatever you want.”

“I might want both.”

“Good. You should have both.”

We walked in the rain for a few minutes, then stopped at a food cart that was still open despite the rain. The smell of grilled meat and spices made my stomach growl. I realized I hadn’t eaten since the plane and that meal wasn’t exactly filling. Or good.

Dash ordered us both gyros and we stood under the vendor’s small awning, eating and watching the rain come down. The meat was perfectly seasoned. It was one of the best things I’d ever tasted, or maybe everything just tasted better when I was with him.

“I didn’t rent a room,” I said between bites. “I chased you to New York first and then found out you were here. I didn’t think, I just flew.”

He grinned around his gyro. “You chased me to New York?”

“I was in Forida to visit my dad, but I wanted to see you. So I went to the Blackwell offices. Adrian told me you were here. I didn’t even go home. I went straight to the airport and got on the first flight I could find.”

“That’s very impulsive of you.”

“I’m learning from the best.”

He finished his food and pulled me close, wrapping his arms around me despite both of us being soaked through. “You can stay with me. My room has a ridiculous view of the Parthenon. And a very large bed.”

“Is that so?”

“It is. And I have absolutely no intention of letting you get any sleep in it.”

I felt that delicious heat spread through my body. “That sounds perfect.”