The Virgin Cowboy Billionaire’s Secret Baby(88)

“Yeah, I’m…” He paused, and nodded slowly. “Now that I’m here, yeah.”

She touched his cheek. “Talk to me. What happened?”

“Nothing. Nothing.” He took her hand and squeezed it gently. “The wedding… It was too much of everyone on the fucking planet and not enough you.”

Dara blinked. “What?”

“I mean, I was surrounded by gorgeous women dressed to the nines, and none of them made me as crazy as you do standing here in pajamas.” He held her gaze. “And I just needed to be here. Not there.”

She stared at him, struggling to comprehend what he was saying.

Matt went on. “I thought…” He raked a hand through his hair. “I thought it was just because we were sleeping together, and maybe even because of the baby, but tonight…” He gnawed his lip. “There’s never been any pressure with you, Dara. When one of us is sick, the other’s there. When we’re both sick, we laugh about being miserable together, and then we keep each other company until we feel better. If I can’t handle a crowd, you don’t get impatient or…” He gestured at her living room. “Hell, you just offer me a place to go, no questions asked. You get me. And I don’t know how it took me this long to figure it out. Maybe…maybe I’m just a slow learner.”

She stared at him. “What…what are you saying?”

“I’m saying that you’re my best friend, and I’m an idiot for not realizing that the way I feel about you isn’t because of the baby. It isn’t because of the sex. Dara, you’ve been my best friend since the dawn of time, and I…” He pushed his shoulders back as he met her gaze. “And I just can’t believe it took me this long to fall in love with you.”

Dara’s knees nearly collapsed out from under her. “Matt…”

“I love you, Dara,” he whispered. “It just took me until tonight to figure it out. I realized that when you offered to spend the evening together, you weren’t just offering me an out from a wedding I didn’t want to go to.” He tucked a few loose strands of hair behind her ear. “You were inviting me to the place I wanted to be more than anywhere else in the world. I don’t know why I couldn’t—”

She cut him off with a kiss this time.

Though he didn’t seem like he could get any more tense, his body stiffened, but then that tension started melting away. His arm snaked around her waist. A hand cradled the back of her head. Warm breath rushed past her cheek.

After God knew how long, Matt lifted his head. He touched her face, caressing her cheek with the pad of his thumb, and when he spoke, his voice was as soft as it was unsteady. “Tonight, I think half the guests introduced me to available women. And I talked to them, but I couldn’t imagine myself with any of them. I don’t even mean…intimately. I just, I tried picturing myself kicking back and playing video games with them, or watching stupid sci-fi movies from the ’80s, and it…” He shook his head. “All the things I love doing, I only see myself doing with you. And, I don’t know, maybe I don’t know relationships, but that’s what I want. I want someone I can hang out with and be myself with. Someone who’s got my back and knows without a doubt I’ve got hers. And my whole life, that’s always been you. Everything always comes back to you.” He swallowed. “I’m just sorry it took me this long to come back to you.”

“Don’t be sorry.” Dara’s eyes stung as she lifted her chin to kiss him. “You were more than worth the wait.”

They wrapped their arms around each other and, for the longest time, just held on. Not kissing, not talking—just standing there beside her front door, Matt dressed for a wedding he didn’t want to go to, Dara dressed for an evening she hadn’t wanted to spend alone, and somehow, they’d both found their way to this.

Her throat ached with the threat of tears. She ran her fingers through his hair, and despite the shakiness in her voice, nothing she’d ever said felt as true, profound and easy as when she whispered, “I love you, Matt.”

He met her gaze. “I love you so much.”

She kissed him gently. Then again. And then he slid his hand up into her hair and really kissed her. Full-on, deep, like he had the night he’d fucked her in the barn, and she was a mess of emotions and arousal, and hormones didn’t even touch any of this. She was relieved to have him back here in his arms, that they’d finally said the words that were so long overdue, and she wanted nothing more than to be as close to him as humanly possible.