All She Ever Wanted - Barbara Freethy [133]
"You're growing on me," he said gruffly, as he turned back to look at her. "And you are hot, in case you hadn't noticed."
"Oh, I've noticed. I just didn't think you had."
"I'd have to be blind not to."
"So that's all you want—my hot body?"
"No, I want your annoying, outspoken mouth, and your really sexy lips, and—"
"Shut up and kiss me," Madison said.
Dylan caught her face with his hands and planted one long, thorough, passionate kiss on her mouth.
"Wow," she said. "Do it again."
"I intend to."
Before he could, a low-flying plane buzzed overhead, drawing their attention to the sky. "What's that guy doing?" Madison asked.
"Looks like some kind of a message," Dylan replied, as the letters began to take shape.
Madison gasped. "Does that say Natalie?"
* * *
"Watch," Cole said, pointing to the sky.
Natalie obediently followed his order, although in truth she was more interested in him than the plane flying over the bridge. That is, until the letters began to form ...
"Natalie?" she read in amazement. "You did this?"
"Keep reading."
Her heart jumped in her chest as she read the message in the sky. NATALIE, I LOVE YOU.
"You're crazy," she said, as he took her into his arms. "Why did you do that?"
"Because I've never been able to say the words. I know you think it was just you I couldn't say them to but it was everyone."
"You haven't said them yet," she reminded him.
"I just wrote them across the sky."
"That's not the same thing."
"You're a tough woman. All right, listen up."
He leaned in, gazing straight into her eyes as he said, "I love you, Natalie. I've loved you since the first day we met and every day since then—even when I thought I hated you."
"That doesn't make any sense, Cole."
"Love doesn't make sense. We're connected, Natalie. We've tried to fight it. But the feelings are stronger now than they ever were. As Emily would have said, we're soul mates."
Emily would have said that, Natalie agreed.
"Now, don't you have something to say to me?" Cole asked.
Could she do it? Could she risk her heart again?
But this time he'd said the words first.
"I love you, too, Cole, but I'm scared. You have so much power over me. It's terrifying."
"You have power over me, too, Natalie."
"That's just it. I don't want to be the person who makes you feel trapped. I saw how the love from your parents made you feel suffocated and smothered. I don't want to do the same thing."
"You're not trapping me. This is what I want. You're what I want."
"You have to be sure, Cole, absolutely sure. Because while you always had too much love, I never had enough. And I want it all now. I didn't think I did. I thought I could live without friends and family, with just my job to make me happy, but the last few weeks have shown me how wrong I was. So if you want to come back into my life, it has to be all the way, or not at all."
"I'm here, Natalie, and I'm not leaving."
"What about your family? I don't want to come between you. I couldn't live with that."
"They gave me their blessing last night."
"You told them?"
"I wanted them to know that I love you and that I wasn't willing to waste another day without you in my life. We've lost too much time as it is."
She touched his face in a tender gesture. "We weren't ready before, Cole, neither one of us."
"But we are now. Emily brought us back together."
"I think that was the professor," she said with a smile.
"No, it was Em. Somewhere up there, she's watching. I know it."
Natalie looked up at the sky where the lettering from Cole's declaration of love had tinned into wisps of white. "I hope she approves."
"I know she does. She'd want us both to be happy, and frankly, I don't think we can be happy without each other." He dug into his pocket and pulled out a black velvet box.
Natalie's heart stopped. "You're not going to ..." She couldn't even say the word much less believe what was happening. This was Cole, the man of her dreams, the man