I laugh and snuggle into him. “You’re all big as shit, it’s perfect on your face.” I stop to touch his face. “I love your face.”

Tenderness, it’s wild and free and raw and primal, and it’s all in his kiss as he nuzzles my nose with his, melting me before his lips crush mine sort of proprietary, sort of fierce, sort of possessive, sort of exquisitely.

He boosts me up by the butt and sets me down on the fountain ledge, bringing me to his eyelevel.

I slip my arms around his neck, and he holds me by the waist. “For a while I’ve been all business. After I lost my mother. I was good at it. I convinced myself that if you’d have gone for me, you would have, long ago—so I never came back. I was good at business, and that was that. I thought I didn’t need more. I do.” He slides his hand into the back of my neck, his grip possessive on my nape as he squeezes gently, his gaze carving into me. “I want, need more. You. Your acceptance, your love. Your smiles, your kindness, your sweetness. Mine. For me.”

I nod so fast I get dizzy, and he chuckles as he boosts me down. We start to walk along the park.

He looks at me as if he doesn’t plan to forget a single feature of my face.

We look at each other as if for the first time.

“Let’s have a do-over,” he says, tugging me close.

“No.” I shake my head, pressing my cheek to his chest. “I don’t want to have missed a thing.”

“Then let’s not miss a thing of what’s coming.”

He looks down at me and brushes my lips with his thumb. “Babies.”

I nod.

“Marriage.”

I nod.

“Considering I’m marrying you in City Hall as fast as I can…can I at least have your name?”

I laugh, cheeks burning.

“Bryn.”

“Bryn. I’m Aaric,” he says, cupping my cheek in one big hand and bringing his eyes to look deep into mine, giving me the most devastating grin. “Bryn, I see my future in your eyes.”