“I only have eyes for you, Sophie. But I never thought I deserved you.”

“Can’t you see how magnificent you are?” she said softly. “Because I’ve always seen it. I'm just so sorry I didn't see more, that I wasn't there for you when you needed me most.”

“You couldn't have seen it, princess. Not when I've spent twenty years honing my ability to hide my problems with reading from everyone. Especially you.”

She watched as his fears surfaced in his eyes, and while she didn't ever want him to be afraid, it meant so much that he was no longer hiding his true emotions from her.

“What if I’m a horrible father just like mine was? What if all the hard work in the world won’t change that? And what if our kids have the same problems I do?”

“I know you’re nervous about becoming a father, but I’m scared, too. I wasn’t planning to become a mother yet—or to have two at once. All we can do is make a vow to each other to stick through the good times and the bad and figure everything out together.” She stared into his beautiful dark eyes, knowing it was long past time to say, “Ask me again, Jake.”

“Sophie?”

“Ask me.”

He dropped to one knee at the side of her bed. “Sophie Sullivan, I love you. I’ve always loved you. I always will love you. Forever.”

She didn't even try to keep her tears from falling. “I love you, Jake McCann. Always.” She felt the wonder, the magic, the beauty of knowing true love had been waiting for them all along. “Forever.”

His mouth captured hers in a kiss so sweet her heart soared.

He reached into his pocket and took out a small blue box she couldn’t believe he’d been carrying with him all this time, just in case she was ready to agree to his proposal.

“Marry me, princess.”

His proposal was still more of a demand than a question, but Sophie wouldn’t have Jake any other way. She loved every bossy, sweet, dominant, comforting, overly protective, loving part of Jake’s soul. Sophie had never felt like an outsider in her own family, but until Jake, she’d never truly felt like she belonged, either.

His love had made her whole.

He opened the box to show her the ring and she lost what was left of her breath. “Oh, Jake.” The center stone was a bright, beautiful yellow gem surrounded by a ring of diamonds.

Looking up into his eyes, she smiled even as tears slid down her face. She could never change his past. But with her support—and her boundless love—she hoped that one day he would finally put it behind him, where it belonged.

She had to kiss him, had to hold him, giving him her answer—the YES she’d been longing to say all her life to one man, and one man only—from within the warmth of his arms.

* * *

Two months later...

Sophie smiled, happily singing along with one of Nicola’s songs on the radio as she drove from the library to Jake’s house. Even though she’d always been perfectly happy with public transportation, especially in the city, where she could easily get wherever she needed to go, he’d insisted on buying her a car. Life with Jake was sweeter than she could ever have imagined, but given that he was still the dominant man she’d fallen in love with so long ago, she’d quickly learned how to pick her battles. A car wasn’t worth fighting over.

She’d recovered well from the surgery to take out the uterine fibroid, but even though Jake had been loving and just plain wonderful during the past two months, she’d missed the wild part of him. They’d made love, of course, and it had been wonderful, but she could tell he was holding back out of fear that he might hurt her or the babies in some way.

She tilted the rearview mirror down to take one last look at herself before she got out of the car. During her lunch break she’d been inspired to go out and buy a soft pink, long-sleeved dress. Sure, she knew she wouldn’t fit into it in a few weeks, but she loved the way the soft fabric slipped and slid against her skin. It reminded her of the way Jake touched her, so gently, so sweetly...so wickedly.

She’d seduced Jake McCann before, and she was beyond excited about seducing her fiance again. Especially after he’d showed her his new tattoo last night, a Celtic knot that symbolized the never-ending path of life, faith…and love. He’d had the artist thread her name through the design, worn right over his heart.

Taking a deep breath, she rang the doorbell instead of using her key.

Jake opened the door a few seconds later, a dumbfounded yet lustful expression on his face. “Sophie?”

She’d never forget that night in Napa when she’d stood on a different doorstep and begged to come inside. “I know you think you need to be careful with me, but the doctor said I’m fully healed now.” Her voice grew husky. “I need you, Jake. Badly.”

He pulled her inside and she was immediately enveloped in his delicious heat, but despite the fact that he clearly wanted her just as much as she wanted him, she could tell from the hard set of his mouth—and the fact that he was keeping a bit of distance between their bodies—that he was going to be a hard sell.

Well, she’d just picked her battle. And there was no way he was going to win this one, thank you very much.

“Stop trying to deny it, Jake,” she said in a husky voice. “You need this just as much as I do.”

He didn’t argue with her, just simply said, “I’ll make you come, princess, over and over, as many times as you need.” He looked like he was about to burst with the need to do just that. “But I can’t be rough with you. Not if it means hurting you again.”

“I know what you’re trying to do,” she told him in a soft voice. “You’re trying to make all the decisions for both of us again. But it’s not going to work.” Heat jumped into his eyes, along with the emotion he no longer tried to hide from her. “I want you exactly the way you are. Rough around the edges. Commanding. Exciting.” She licked her lips. “And I’m willing to do anything to prove it to you.”

She worked to control the laughter that threatened to spill out at how adorable he was as he tried to fight the inevitable.

“You’ll do anything to prove it to me?” His expression had finally changed back to the wicked lover she’d begun to miss lately.

“Anything,” she repeated as she reached for the buttons on the front of her dress and began to undo them. Jake’s eyes held hope, desire, and so much love in them that it took her breath away as she pulled open the front of her dress.