“Sweet, huh?”
Even in the midst of a serious conversation, he can manage to be arrogant. I laugh. “Yeah, I’ll admit it this once. You’re incredibly sweet. And when I was with you, all the bad stuff went away for a while. I’ve never been happier than when I was with you.”
“That’s exactly how I feel. So, I don’t care about what my father did or didn’t do anymore. I’m in love with you, Emma. And I don’t want you going anywhere.” His head descends slowly, his eyes on mine the whole time. Then he kisses me and all thoughts, all worries, and all fear dissolves.
It’s just his lips on mine and the knowledge that he loves me.
A door opens on one of the floors above us and there’s the rhythmic stomp, stomp, stomp, of feet on the stairs.
“I guess we should go back. We’re not supposed to be in here.” I look up at the open staircase above us.
Tank grins. “I don’t care. Break the rules with me, Emma.”
I glance back at the open air above us, and then launch myself into his arms. He catches me and I wrap my legs around his waist. As we kiss, someone passes by us going up the staircase and I don’t even care to look.
Tank is the only thing I want to see.
“So you had an interesting strategy for getting my attention. I asked you out for weeks in a row and you refused every time. I’ve never seen that used as a way to get a date but I suppose it worked.”
“I wasn’t playing hard to get. As hard as this may be on your ego, I said no because I didn’t want to go out with the bad boy in leather who looked like nothing but trouble. Besides, that was way before your dad even made the offer.”
“It was? Well, when did he make the offer?”
“Um, it was actually the day you showed up at the club. Which was a totally crazy coincidence now that I look back on it.”
Tank pulls away, a strange look on his face. “Wait, that can’t be right. It must have been before that.”
“No, it was that day. I remember so clearly because it was the strangest day ever. I got offered a million dollars in the afternoon, then my crappy car wouldn’t start and then I got fired from my strip club waitressing job. Strangest day ever.”
Tank chuckles and then it turns into a full belly laugh. He picks me up and spins us around.
“What? What is going on?”
“There was no ‘job’. My father was matchmaking, Emma. I remember that day clearly, too. I was just leaving my brother’s place when my boss called asking me for a favor. I’d just been telling Finn that I’d signed the papers accepting my father’s terms.”
“Wait, what? That doesn’t make sense. So that day when Mr. Marshall offered me the money—“
“I had already signed,” Tank finished. “There was no need for you to convince me to do anything because my father had already gotten what he wanted. Except apparently that wasn’t the only thing he wanted. He wanted to give you the money because he likes you. This was the only way he could figure out how to do it. And it was his way of pushing us together.”
Joyous laughter bubbles up inside me. “I knew it. He’s just a big ole’ softie.”
Tank leans against the wall, pulling me into the cradle of his thighs. “I don’t know what the future will bring but I need to know that you’ll be a part of it. I need to know that you’ll be with me as I face it.”
I cup his face and pull him down so he can see the truth in my eyes. “That’s exactly what I want, too. I was so scared that you wouldn’t want to see me anymore.”
His lips brush across my forehead. “My brother pointed out something that I couldn’t ignore this morning. You turned down a million dollars for me. If that doesn’t prove that you’re really in this for me, then I don’t know what ever could.” He kisses me again and we collapse back against the wall, entwined in each other’s arms.
“I guess since that million dollars isn’t dirty money, maybe I shouldn’t have given it back to you then, huh?”
Tank grins at me and then pulls something from his back pocket. It’s the envelope I gave him but it’s all crumpled and creased.
“You’ve been carrying that around this whole time?”
He shrugs and his arms tighten around my middle. “It was my last connection to you. But you can have it back. I honestly don’t care.”
I shake my head. “I’ve already got exactly what I want right here. And it has nothing to do with money.”
Everything is still up in the air. I’m not sure where I’m going to live, where I’m going to go to school or how I’m going to pay for any of it. I know that I don’t want Tank paying for it but beyond that I haven’t got a clue. But I know that I can figure it out.
And that Tank will be with me through it all.
EPILOGUE
TANK
One month later …
I enter Finn’s penthouse balancing two large pizzas under one arm and carrying a six-pack of beer in the other. I look over my shoulder at Eli, who stands uncertainly behind me.
“Come on in. Have a beer. Take a load off.”
He waves at Finn, Gabe and Zack who are sitting on the couch. There’s already a basketball game playing on the big screen.
“Guys, this is my boss, Elliott Alexander. Eli, my brothers. Finn is in the armchair, the one who looks like my clone is Gabe and the one with the Mohawk is Zack.”