Mr. Big(61)

Alexander watched her quietly, his expression unreadable as she explained.

“The only thing was, you aren’t like most guys. You didn’t want a one night stand. You wanted to wait. You wanted to get to know me, and I’m not used to any men looking for any kind of depth like that. I had to keep trying, had to keep spending time with you until you decided it was the right time for us to be together, and then a funny thing happened. It was unexpected. The more I got to know you, the more I wanted to know you. The more I wanted to be with you. I couldn’t keep you off of my mind. I couldn’t keep you out of my dreams, and then when you and I were finally together, I had the answer I was looking for and it seemed like things were going so well between us. I thought that maybe we could keep going, but you happened to walk into my office at just the wrong time, and you found out about the challenge, and by then it was too late to tell you; too late to explain, and you left.”

The memory of it ripped at her and she took a long, slow, deep breath before she continued, and he watched her silently, his emotions still impassive.

“I wanted to tell you how sorry I was, and that it changed partway through; I mean, at first it was just about the challenge, but then I didn’t care about the challenge that much anymore, I just wanted to be with you, and the more I got to know you, the more important you became to me. I fell in love with you, and I hadn’t realized it yet. You walked out of my office and my heart broke right in half. I was devastated. I couldn’t believe that I’d lost you. Nothing helped. I only dated Logan because I was trying to get over you. When you kissed me at the restaurant, that was the last of the heartbreak that I could stand and I decided I had to get away. I had to leave. So I used the ticket to come here to try to recover and find myself again… to try to get over you, and Liam called me to check on me. He knew all along how I felt about you, but he didn’t say anything. At least, he didn’t say anything until I was over here, and then he made me admit to myself and to him that I am in love with you, and then he told me that I have to tell you, and I said I would when I got back to the states, but I guess you fixed that for me.”

She laughed and ran her fingertip over his lips. “I can’t believe that you’re here. I can’t believe you came all the way over here for me.”

He smiled at her a little. “I had to. Liam called me and told me everything. He told me about the challenge and he apologized. He told me how you had fallen for me and how hurt you were that we were broken up. He said that you had come over here to get over me and when he told me that, I couldn’t just stay in Manhattan. I couldn’t stand the thought that you might try to find some other man over here to be with to push me out of your mind. I was scared that I might lose you for good, and I lost you once already; I couldn’t do it again. My heart couldn’t take that either.”

He kissed her lips softly and tenderly. “You can’t imagine what you mean to me. It’s incredible to me that it happened so fast, but you are such a beautiful woman on the inside and on the outside, and you are such a good woman, that I couldn’t help but fall in love with you. I was devastated too, when I overheard everything in your office that day, and I thought I had lost the love of my life, but when Liam called and explained everything to me, I knew I had a chance to get you back. I knew that I had to try. I had to tell you how I felt and see if there was any way that we could salvage what we have and try to rebuild it.”

He traced his lips over hers again. “Will you do that with me? Will you try to rebuild it with me?”

She closed her eyes and kissed him tenderly. “I will. I promise you that I am never going to hurt you like that again.” She whispered, looking into his eyes earnestly.

He smiled at her. “I love you,” he told her again.

“I love you, too,” she answered with words, and then she answered with another kiss, and before long she was making love with him again.





Epilogue

The autumn colors of New York blazed all over the city, but nowhere as beautifully as they did in Central Park. The trees that had showered the lake and the shoreline with soft pink and white blossoms in the spring were covered in varying shades of red and gold, green and brown, rust and russet, as the warm September sun made every leaf glow more brightly.

Rows of chairs were lined up in the brilliant green grass, decorated with ribbons and bows, flowers and greenery. Each chair was filled with a person dressed well and smiling, and most of them talked amongst themselves as a string quartet played just off to the side of them.