“These keys can be used to access the vault at the Swiss bank’s physical location.” He picks one up and presses it into my palm. “This one is yours.”
“Jett, I don’t—”
“I want you to know, with every ounce of your being, that I trust you.”
My hands shake a little. “I can’t—”
“You can take it, and you will.” He pulls another small box from his pocket. This one is a jewelry box, and inside is a delicate chain. Jett puts the key box on the table and holds out his hand. I put the key in it like it’s on fire.
He threads the chain through the top of the key, then steps forward and reaches around my neck, fastening it while I hold up my hair.
“I trust you,” he repeats, and then I’m in his arms, and he’s kissing me hard. The weight of the key is comforting against my collarbone.
Then he breaks the kiss. “I love you, Angelica.”
My world explodes with joy.
Chapter Forty-Eight
Jett
Angelica’s face is flushed with happiness when we leave the secure building. On the way out, I give her another surprise. “Just so you know, any time you need anything, you can come to this building and go into my safe. When you signed that pad and entered your finger, I was adding you to the security system so you can always enter. I keep an amount of cash in case of emergency in the safe, as well.”
She shakes her head. “You’re too much.”
“You’re too much. You—” I lose the words I want to say just looking at her face. “You changed everything.”
We get into the car and Angelica leans up against me as Stuart steers us into the traffic. Her chest rises and falls, her breath calm. My own chest opens up, my heart overflows. I’ll never say it to any of my friends—not Connor—but there’s no better feeling in the whole damn world than being in love.
Than being in love with Angelica.
It’s so fucking clear to me now that everything else I thought was love was just mutual lust, a business transaction that was ultimately hollow, a risk not worth taking.
“Wait,” she says as we go past the usual turn for the penthouse. “Where are we going? My place?”
“Oh, right. We’re not going back to my place.
“Okay.”
“Or yours.”
She sits up straight, eyes shining. “Where, then?”
I turn toward the front of the Town Car. “Stuart?”
He brings the car to a stop at the next light, then pulls something off the front seat and hands it back to me.
“Jett, what did you—?”
I hold up the garment bag in front of Angelica and unzip it, revealing an evening dress in dusky rose. I’ll tell her later that I bought it for her the week after we met, and I’ve been saving it all along for something special.
This is it.
“Do you want me to look away?”
“No,” she says with a wicked smile, then starts stripping off her jacket. I glance in the rearview mirror. Stuart’s eyes are locked on the road.
Good man.
Angelica is down to her bra and panties in less than thirty seconds. Then she reaches for the dress.
“Wait.”
She pauses, her hands in the air, and gives me a look.
I put the bag on the seat next to me and lean over, running my hands over the curves of her waist. I am never, for as long as I live, going to pass up the chance to worship her body in every possible way.”
“Jett....”
I kiss her, soft and slow, and she moans into my mouth, starts to press the length of her body against mine....
And I have to pull away.
She groans in frustration. “Why?”
“We’re almost there.”
She points an accusing finger at me. “You did that on purpose.”
“Not entirely. I just can’t resist you.”
“Good.”
She leans over me, and for a moment I think she might straddle me, which would just be icing on the cake. Instead, she runs her lips along my jawline, then snatches up the garment bag from the other side of me.
“Vixen.”
“I never claimed otherwise.”
She shimmies into the dress, which looks stunning even when she’s sitting in the backseat of the Town Car. I can’t wait to get her home. Her place, mine—I don’t care.
But first—this.
Stuart pulls up in front of the main entrance of the Swan and stays seated, like I discussed with him earlier. I get out and go around to Angelica’s door, open it, and hold my hand out to her. She takes it with a wide smile.
“Back to first-date territory?”
“Plus a little extra.”
There’s a photographer from one of the gossip magazines outside the main entrance, leaning up against the wall, and I take my time leading her in. Before we go in the door, I dip her back and kiss her again, the click of the shutter carrying over the traffic noises.