He chuckled and kissed the back of her neck. “And each time you’ve turned me down because it was ‘too soon,’ as you put it.”
“Marrying someone after knowing them for one day is too soon by anyone’s standards,” she pointed out.
“So you say.”
“So I know.”
“Fine. But you still have to listen to my spiel.”
“I did say I was listening,” Elle teased.
“Okay. I’ve made a little list.” He shifted again, this time so she had a view of his fingers as he counted off. “One. Your paperwork for Katie came through.”
“Yes, it did.”
“Two. Sentencing came down for James Stanley.”
“Also true.”
“Three. The government lawyers finally went through Trey’s stuff, and you’re more or less sorted for life.”
“I still don’t like it. But yes.”
“All of that’s led me to the only thing that makes sense.”
Elle fought a smile. “Which is?”
“You can pay me back what you owe me,” he announced.
“Noah, you know I’m—Wait. What?”
“You owe me twenty grand.”
She waited for the punchline, and when he said nothing else, she turned to look at him. “Seriously?”
He nodded. “Yep.”
“Okay, putting aside everything else…twenty grand? I thought I was at thirteen-thousand and something.”
“Yeah, well. Our time apart added a doctor’s bill, a cab ride…some stolen property. Oh. And some serious heartache.”
“I paid for this trip!” she protested.
“The trip came post-relationship,” he pointed out.
With a weird stab of disappointment pricking at her, Elle swiveled to face Katie again. Noah swept her hair away from her shoulder and gave her ear a little nip.
“But lucky for you,” he said, “I’ve come up with a solution. Open the box.”
She wrinkled her nose, but did as she was told, noticing for the first time that the box was different than the one he’d pressed into her hands thirty-two times before.
“Did you pick a new ring?” she asked.
“Only one way to find out.”
Her heart fluttered. She was inexplicably more nervous than she’d been with his clockwork proposals. But when she lifted the velvet lid, all she found was emptiness.
“I don’t get it,” she confessed.
Noah laughed against her skin. “That’s because this time, the ring wasn’t for you.”
“Who was it…” Elle trailed off, and her eyes found Katie.
She realized abruptly that the little girl had been unusually quiet all morning. And that she’d spent an awfully long amount of time out of chatting distance, too. And now, Elle could swear she saw a sparkly flash on Katie’s finger. And it pleased her immensely.
“What did you tell her?” she asked.
“The same thing I tell you every day,” he replied easily. “That I love her. That each day, I love her more. That I want to keep loving her for the rest of my life.”
“And what did she say?”
“That I should probably marry her momma.”
“And?”
His mouth made a pleasant heated path from her ear to her chin. “I said I’d ask. Again.”
“And?” Elle repeated, keeping her eyes on her daughter, but leaning into Noah at the same time.
A second little box plopped into her lap—the same one she’d seen thirty-two times before. “Please, Elle. I’m pretty sure I’ve loved you since the second I saw you there in that park. Be my wife?”
“All right, Noah. I guess thirty-three is your lucky number.”
“Yeah?”
“Yes.”
There was this briefest pause, and then Noah added, “Well. This takes care of the money you owe me. But I think it’s going to create some more paperwork.”
“What? Why?”
“All the legal stuff it’ll take to make Katie my daughter, too.”
Elle’s mouth opened, but whatever she was about to say was cut off by Noah’s lips. They pressed to hers in an unhurried kiss. Tender and slow. Familiar and wondrous. A touch that let her know that she was his, and he was hers. Then he pulled away, touched her cheek, and jumped to his feet. He cast her a quick, sexy wink before loping off toward Katie. And as Elle watched him go, she couldn’t help but think how good it was to be thinking about a beginning instead of an ending.
* * * * *
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ISBN-13: 9781488071348
High-Stakes Bounty Hunter
Copyright © 2021 by Melinda A. Di Lorenzo
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.
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ISBN-13: 9781488071553
Copyright © 2021 by Harlequin Books S.A.
The publisher acknowledges the copyright holders of the individual works as follows:
Colton 911: The Secret Network
Copyright © 2021 by Marie Ferrarella
Colton’s Dangerous Liaison
Copyright © 2021 by Regan Black
The Widow’s Bo
dyguard
Copyright © 2021 by Karen Whiddon
High-Stakes Bounty Hunter
Copyright © 2021 by Melinda Di Lorenzo
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Harlequin Romantic Suspense January 2021 Page 93