Page 135 of Lease to Love

Candles glowed along the surfaces. Orange rose petals were scattered across the bed, spilling onto the floor. More gift boxes than I could count sat arranged around the room.

I stared.

"It's not quite a thousand dresses," he said, "but trust me. You'll get the rest of them."

My eyes stung.

"Roman... What is all this?"

He took both of my hands.

"I'm hoping this is the beginning of my first weekend with my girlfriend."

I forgot how to breathe.

He turned me gently toward the television.

The screen wasn't displaying the generic hotel welcome message.

Instead, it read:

SUNSHINE, WILL YOU BE MY GIRLFRIEND?

Underneath it, in smaller letters:

FOR REAL THIS TIME.

A laugh broke out of me at the exact same time a sob did. I covered my mouth.

Roman came up behind me, wrapping both arms around my waist.

"I never officially asked you," he murmured against my hair. "Figured it was time to change that."

I turned around so quickly his arms loosened, then I wrapped mine around his neck and kissed him.

I kissed him until the room disappeared.

Until the candles blurred.

Until the only thing I could feel was the warmth of his body and the certainty settling into a place inside me that had been afraid to hope.

When we finally broke apart, he rested his forehead against mine.

"I take that as a yes?"

I nodded, laughing through the tears still clinging to my lashes.

"It's a hell yes."

He kissed me again.

This one was slower.

Deeper.

The kind of kiss that didn't ask a question because we already knew the answer.

His hands moved over me with the familiar confidence I'd spent the last week missing more than I wanted to admit, and somewhere between another kiss and another breath, the carefully arranged room stopped mattering.