She laughs and whispers, “Yes. Please. Now.”

I kiss her softly, brushing my lips over hers, savoring what feels like a first kiss. Taking my time, I breathe her in. I linger on her mouth. I want to remember this moment, when everything has finally been said. Our kisses, our touches have always felt real, but now we’ve sealed our kisses with words.

She kisses me back with such desire, such love that it erases any earlier concerns I had about whether this trip would be worth the risk. She is worth it. She is the risk and she is the reward—the reward I want every day of my life.

When we separate, I press my lips to her forehead. “I thought you were going to break my heart.”

Laughing, she wraps her arms around my waist and tilts her face to me. “Why would you think that?”

“Maybe because I wanted you so much from the start. You nearly did break me. I thought you wanted it to be over.”

“God, no,” she whispers, desperately.

“Yeah?”

“I thought you didn’t feel the same.”

“Because of my brother?”

She shrugs and nods. “Yes.”

“He meant well. But he didn’t know the truth. The truth is I’ve been falling in love with you since the day you agreed to marry me. In fact, I’m pretty sure the first time we slept together, I was already making love to you.”

She trembles, and a flush crawls up her neck. It’s so alluring, and I want to kiss her all over. “When you came back from London . . .”

The memory of that night blazes before me. “The club, you mean?”

She nods. “I knew it then. I felt it then. That night, our connection—it was the most intense thing I’ve ever felt.”

“Me too, and it wasn’t just the sex.”

She nods and dusts her lips across my jaw. “I know. It was so much more.”

“It can be more. It can be more forever, Elise.”

She pulls back and gives me a quizzical look, and that’s when I finish what I came here to do. I drop down to one knee and take the box from my pocket, flipping open the lid.

She shrieks and clasps both hands to her mouth.

“Will you stay married to me?”

Her answer comes swiftly. “Yes.”

She joins me, pushing me to sit as she climbs on my lap, wraps her arms around me, and smothers me in kisses. “I want to be Mrs. Elise Ellison for always.”

I laugh as I tug her close, pressing kisses along her neck. “You never took my name, sweetheart.”

“I will now.”

I pull back to meet her eyes. “You will?”

She nods. “I want to.”

“Do you want your ring?”

“Yes, please.” She holds out her hand, and I slide a diamond ring next to her wedding band.

She sighs, and it’s a beautiful sound. It sounds like happiness. It sounds like everything I never expected from this marriage of convenience that’s now like air to me. Her.

“I love it, and I love you, and I want you to read my blog,” she says.

“You wrote a blog post?”

She nods, grabs her phone, and shows me a post from fifteen minutes ago. As I read it, my smile can’t be contained. I point to the screen. “You posted that as I was walking over to you?”

She nods and grins like a fool. “I did.”

I give her a look. “Elise, admit it.”

“Admit what?”

I point from her to me. “This is fate. We’re fate.”

She laughs. “Yes. I believe in fate. But mostly I believe in you.” She plants a searing kiss to my lips that makes me want to do very dirty things to her.

I grip her hips, lift her off me. “Let’s go to your hotel.”

We leave the park and hail a taxi.

“By the way, how did you find me?”

“I tracked down your brother’s number and asked him to find out where you were. He seemed quite eager to make sure you’d be here to meet me.”

She laughs. “I’m so glad it was you instead of him.”

I run a finger over the hollow of her throat, touching her new Eiffel Tower charm. “We need to get you a necklace for the gardens now. You don’t have one. Do you need a flower charm?”

She shakes her head and holds up her hand. “I have a diamond instead.”

We waste no time when we reach her room. Clothes come off at record speed, and our bodies become reacquainted with each other. It’s only been a few days since I’ve seen her, but it’s been too long since we’ve touched.

When I climb over her, and she raises her arms to loop them around my neck, I look into her eyes. “I want to make love to my wife.”

She doesn’t say yes. She doesn’t say, “Make love to me.” Instead, she says, “Consume me.”

And I do. That’s how I make love to her. Like there’s a fire inside me, and the only way to quench it is to have her. To take her. To bring her to the edge of pleasure again and again.