Love. Set. Match.

  “Um, the hospital?” Worry clouded her brown eyes as they traveled his body, as if taking inventory to make sure he still had all his parts. “You were stabbed two days ago, Rob. You should be in your hospital bed, charming the pretty nurses, not lurking in hallways.”

  He shrugged, keeping his expression light, ignoring the slight twinge in his side. “Here’s the thing. The nurses? Scary, all of ’em. And besides, there’s only one woman I want to be charming right now. I honestly haven’t really felt my injury since she left me this note earlier today.”

  “I can’t believe your doctors let you come today.” She shifted her bag on her shoulder, looking down shyly. “I’d planned to come back to the hospital after the match to see you.”

  “Well, the doctors didn’t really let me come. I told them I was leaving whether they liked it or not.” He reached out and took her hand, pulling her a little closer. “I couldn’t lay there in a hospital bed and watch the match on TV. Not this one.”

  She bit her bottom lip, and he ached to kiss her. For now, he settled for breathing in the citrus-and-rosemary scent of her, savoring the feel of her hand in his. To make sure she couldn’t escape, he linked their fingers together.

  “I want to be mad at you for risking your health like this,” she said, “but I can’t tell you what it meant to have you there. Seeing you there, with my family, with your family. I don’t—I don’t think I could have done it without you there.”

  “You would have, Em. You were on fire today.” He glanced around the abandoned hallways. “It’s getting late. If you want to go celebrate with your family, we can do that. Or…”

  She gave his hand a squeeze. “Or what?”

  He took a deep breath, laying his cards on the table and hoping she picked them up. “Or we could go back to my apartment and talk. Tonight might not be the best night for it. I’m sure you’re exhausted, but—”

  “Going back to your apartment sounds perfect.” A smile tilted up her lips. “It’s weird, but I’m the opposite of tired right now. I’m wired, like I might jump out of my own skin.”

  “It’s a rush.” He tugged her down the hallway toward the door. “Are you ready to face the hordes? They’ll be outside waiting. I could go around another way if you prefer.”

  It hurt to offer that, after all they’d been through, but he wanted to respect her wishes. If she didn’t want to be seen with him, he’d deal with it—for now.

  “No. No more hiding. Besides, I think the whole world saw me kiss you earlier,” she teased.

  Grinning down at her, he pushed the doors open and let the cool evening air hit them along with the storm of flashing cameras. The questions came pelting at them, buzzing through the air like a swarm of bees. At first, he simply shouldered his way through the crowd, keeping a tight hold on her hand. Then Bruno put himself in Em’s path and refused to move.

  “Emerson. It seems the rumors are true. Are you and Rob together again? Is it true you slept with him to try to get better press coverage after your boudoir pictures were leaked?”

  Rob’s fist curled, and he seriously considered punching Bruno, but Em stopped him. He’d seen the same ferocity in her eyes earlier when she faced down Chessa, and she approached Bruno, her spine ramrod straight.

  “I thought you were supposed to be a journalist, Bruno. Not a scandal-monger,” she snapped. “You can go to hell if you think I’ll give you any sort of interview after the shit you’ve pulled.”

  “What about that kiss after the match, Emerson?” Jodi Barnes, a reporter for one of the New York dailies, asked. “Seemed pretty steamy from where I was sitting.”

  Em sighed, moving closer to Rob, their hands still entwined. He didn’t say a word, waiting to see what she did. If it were up to him, he’d shout how he felt from the rooftops. But this was Em’s show, her career, her decision how much to say.

  “Look, I get you all want a good story, and everyone eats up a romance subplot. But I’m only going to comment on my love life once. Rob Ashton is one of the most important men in my life. He’s not someone I’m screwing or using for whatever twisted purposes you dream up to sell ad space. He’s my partner and the man I’ve loved for seven years. Now, in case you didn’t notice, I’ve had a long day, so if you could let us through, that’d be great.”

  Unsurprisingly, Em’s pronouncement set off a new melee of questions, but now Rob took charge. His heart swelled as he wrapped an arm around Em’s shoulders to lead her through the crowd. She’d claimed him in public, twice in one day. She’d left no room for interpretation. Now it was time for him to do the same.

  They didn’t speak through the entire ride back to his apartment. In fact, Em dozed off not long after they left the tennis center. It was a miracle that he’d convinced both of their families to give them tonight. They’d all wanted to celebrate with her, even his father, but given the fact that she was gently snoring beside him minutes after sitting down for the first time in what must have been hours, Rob knew he’d made the right call. Tonight would be for them. And hopefully, tomorrow they’d celebrate more than just her Grand Slam title.

  “Wow. What a view,” she said as he led her through the industrial metal door of the converted warehouse. His apartment looked out over the Hudson, the lights of the city twinkling in the night.

  “It’s one of the reasons I can’t bring myself to give this place up. As much as I don’t like living in the city, when I’m up here, I forget how noisy and crowded and busy it can get.”

  She set her bag down and went to stand in front of the floor-to-ceiling windows. “I can see why. I love looking at the water. One day, I want to get a house on a little canal or lake so I can sit and watch it for hours.”

  “Sounds nice.” He wandered over to the couch and took a seat, his eyes never leaving her. He still couldn’t believe she was here in his apartment. Three days ago, he wouldn’t have ever believed this was possible. Eight hours ago, he’d woken up in a hospital bed, unsure that Em would ever want to talk to him again. Then she’d written him that note, and everything changed again, just as it had that day on the plane.

  For so many years, he’d regretted giving her up, regretted listening to his family, to his father. Then, when she walked away in London, he’d almost given in to his anger and given up on her. But he couldn’t because something in him clung to her, to how she made him feel. And now she was so close, yet there was still something lurking between them, keeping them apart.

  “We didn’t come here to talk about the view,” she said, her voice hollow, her shoulders hunched, and her arms wrapped around her middle.

  He desperately wanted to go and wrap his body around her, to feel her in his arms again, to savor the scent of her, the warmth of her. Every night without her had been worse than the last.

  It would be so easy for him to pour his heart out to her, to tell her that he still loved her and wanted to be with her. If he wasn’t careful, he’d even tell her all the plans he’d cooked up in his head while waiting for the doctors to sign his discharge papers. The house they’d live in, the children they’d have. How they’d work together after she decided she wanted to retire. How he’d hold her every night and wake up to her beautiful face every morning for the rest of his life.

  “No, we didn’t.” He leaned back, watching her carefully. “You…you said a lot of things in your letter. And that you had more you wanted to say. Ball’s in your court, Em.”

  She didn’t turn around to face him for several long moments, but when she did, her face was awash with a hundred different emotions that Rob struggled to place. He thought love lurked there, but it was masked by—pain? And anger? Sorrow also tinged her gaze. As her face crumpled a little, he realized that everything had finally caught up with her.

  “I—I don’t know where to start,” she said, sniffling a little, her arms still crossed. “No, wait, I do. How could you be so damn stupid, Rob? You were so, so stupid, so many times.”

  Anger bubbled up inside him, but he ke
pt it at a low simmer. “I’m the stupid one? How did you work that out? Seven years ago, yeah, I’ll own wearing the stupid hat then. But not this time.”

  “Yes, this time,” she lashed out. “You don’t see me jumping in front of a crazy man with a knife and ending up in the hospital. Why did you do it? Why didn’t you let the security guys take care of it?”

  “Why do you think?” He narrowed his eyes at her. Did she really not know? Or was she trying to find an excuse to take back what she’d written earlier?

  She brushed at her cheek with one hand, keeping the other arm around her middle. “I—I don’t know. All I know is you scared the shit out of me when you did. Seeing you lying there, bleeding? Yeah, that proves it was incredibly stupid.”

  “Imagine how I felt, know that guy was coming straight at you.” He shot to his feet. “Jesus, Em. Do you think I could stand by and watch you get hurt two days before the finals? To see you lose your dream when you were so close?”

  His heart still stopped at the thought of Em taking that stab. He’d died a thousand times in those few moments before he put himself between her and the knife. Seeing her out there today, so fierce and fit and whole, had been the only thing to really ease that terror, that convinced him she was really all right.

  Her jaw tightened, and her body folded over as she gasped for breath. Without a second thought, he went to her, pulling her to him and kissing her for all he was worth. He needed to stop her tears before they broke his heart, and she needed to know that he wasn’t going to give her up until the last breath left his body.

  ****

  Em lost herself in the kiss for a moment, and the sobs clawing at her throat dissipated. She didn’t know what to feel. Ever since she’d scored the winning point, her head had been spinning. Every emotion on the scale battered her from all directions, threatening to overwhelm her. So she clung to Rob for a little longer, letting him protect her once more.

  But she finally had to pull away, had to say what she needed to say. She let him lead her over to the couch and let him sit beside her. She tried to remove his arms from around her, but he refused to let her.

  “I—God, Rob. For so long, I’ve wondered if I was good enough. Good enough for my father, good enough for my grandparents, good enough for you. Especially you. When you didn’t fight for me that day, I knew your father convinced you that I wasn’t good enough.” She looked away, keeping her gaze on the windows. “Now I know for sure. I don’t deserve you. You’ve done so much for me, risked so much, and I’ve been—I’ve been the world’s biggest bitch.”

  She bit back another sob, trying not to give in to the emotions. She needed to be strong now. She couldn’t be one of those girls who crumpled because of a guy, who needed a guy to make her feel worthy. She could do this without him and be totally fine—eventually—but she didn’t want to.

  “Emerson Grace.” Rob’s voice cracked through the air, cutting through the roaring in her ears. Big hands came up to cup her face, forcing her to look up into those gorgeous blue eyes. “You are anything but a bitch. You are kind, compassionate, selfless, and fiercely loyal. You would do anything for the people you love, including giving up on a relationship you really want to make them proud. You push aside your happiness because you’ve made a promise to yourself and your dead grandpa that you’d win a Grand Slam this year to prove all of the work was worth it. What you don’t realize is that, title or not, your grandparents have always thought you hung the moon, and Zoe loves you like her own daughter. They just need you to be you, and that’s all I need too.”

  She sniffled, trying to move away from him and the wave of feelings he conjured up, but he held her where she was.

  “Come on, Em. You said in that note you were going to let your walls down, that you were ready to put the past behind us. Part of that is trusting me and what’s between us. Did you mean what you wrote? Because from those kisses, I think you meant it.”

  Her cheeks burned a little, and she glanced down. “Yes. Of course I did. It’s just…so much so fast.”

  “We can take things slow, if that’s what you want. I’ve waited seven years for you. Going a little slower won’t hurt me as long as I know that you really want this. That you want me.”

  Her heart ached as she watched the flicker of uncertainty in his eyes. He was usually so confident, so sure of himself. It was usually nice to see the cracks in his armor, but now she wanted that confidence back. He needed the words as much as she did, and this time it had to be her turn to say them, to take the leap.

  “I want you, Rob. So much.” She reached up to cover his hands with hers. “I’ve missed you every day since I left London. It’s like I said—I got scared, and I lashed out, and I was the stupid one then.”

  “Okay, then no more tears, beautiful.” He brushed the wetness off her cheek and pressed a kiss to her forehead. “We both want to be together. We can work with that.”

  She squeezed her eyes shut, a little giggle escaping her lips. “Yeah. I guess we can.”

  He eased them both back onto the couch, his arms wrapped around her, her head resting in the crook of his good shoulder. “In case I haven’t said it already, I was crazy proud of you today.”

  She snuggled in, savoring the scent of him. This smell had haunted some of her steamier dreams over the last six weeks. “When I won? That was pretty good. Not as good as when I saw you awake this morning, but close.”

  “Yeah, the whole achieving your life-long goal thing was awe-inspiring to watch.” A teasing smile lit his eyes with that spark she loved so much. “But I was talking about when you stood up to Bruno and told him to shove it up his ass. When you told the world I was your partner.”

  Burying her head in his chest for a moment, she glanced up at him, slightly embarrassed. “I did do that, didn’t I?”

  He nodded, leaning in for a kiss that was only long enough to make her toes curl. “Yeah, you did. It was almost as great as when you kissed me in your box after you won.”

  “That was pretty good,” she admitted. “Once I got over being annoyed that you didn’t stay in the hospital like you should have, I was so glad to see you there. To share that with you. For the first time, I had the person I really wanted in my corner when it counted.”

  For years, she’d dreamed of having someone there for her besides her grandparents. They were wonderful, but she’d always felt like something was missing. Like someone was missing. She used to think it was her dad or her mom. But now she could admit it to herself—it was Rob. It was someone to love her, to be there for her not because they were her family, but because they chose her, because she mattered to them.

  “It’s the first of many times I’ll be there. I promise.” He brushed her hair behind her ears. “I’ll be there for every match if you want.”

  She raised an eyebrow. “Oh, really? And how do you plan to do that?”

  “Well, I’m sure you’ve heard that I no longer work for TWW.”

  “I seem to have heard rumors to that effect. So what, you’re unemployed, which means you can follow your girlfriend around the world, watching her play tennis?”

  He grinned. “Girlfriend? Definitely like the sound of that. But I actually have a job. Just one with a very flexible schedule and a convenient location. Do you want some dinner? I think I want some dinner.”

  He stood up, leaving her on the couch as he made his way over to the kitchen on the other side of the great room. He pulled something out of the oven and puttered around grabbing plates, and all she could do was stare after him. He acted so nonchalant, as if they weren’t discussing pretty significant parts of their life together.

  “Hold up. You can’t drop something like that, then go talk about food, Mystery Man. What is this job?” she asked, getting up to join him, leaning back against the concrete countertop as he poured wine into two glasses.

  “I’m working as a coach at my mom’s tennis academy.” He dished up what looked to be panang curry over steamed rice that already reste
d on deep-lipped stoneware plates. “My job is to help coach the kids who attend the academy through the foundation’s work with foster kids. And I actually kind of love it. If it goes the way I think it will, I may ask Mama to let me take over the whole program for her.”

  Em listened as he explained his work, his face lighting up as he talked about the kids he worked with. He looked so…satisfied. More comfortable in his own skin than she’d seen him since before his injury.

  “It sounds…amazing,” she said, accepting the plate of food and joining him at one of the stools by the breakfast bar. “But wait. Isn’t your mom’s academy in Miami?”

  Rob chuckled, taking a bite of his food. “Catch up, lady. Why do you think I agreed to help?”

  “But what about your dad? You and he don’t exactly make the best colleagues.”

  “We’re learning to work together. Mom’s helping him realize that it’s okay to let me live my own life.”

  She gave him a skeptical look. “You really think that’s going to last?”

  Bobby Ashton was not a man to give up his ways easily. Both Ashton men had heads harder than the courts of Arthur Ashe Stadium, and neither of them liked to back off if they didn’t have to. She almost felt sorry for Brigit, having to manage the two of them all day.

  “We’ll see how it goes. Like I said, I’d like to eventually grow the program and oversee it on my own. For now, I’m doing a job I love, and I get to be in the same city as the woman I love.” He sipped his wine. “At least when she’s in town. And if I need to rearrange my schedule to travel with her, I have the room to do that.”

  Love. Such a little word packed a really big punch. Her heart swelled as she tucked it in close, enjoying how freely he used the word.

  “The woman you love, huh?” She leaned closer to him.

  “Yep. Love, adore, worship, take your pick. It fits.” He sat his fork down and pulled her in for another kiss. “The woman I want to take on dates and show off at parties and sleep with every night and wake up with every morning.”