Instead of answering her, he removed his coat and scarf, hanging them in the closet by the door, and then placed his overnight bag on the table. It was either he did something with his hands, or he’d rush across the room and pull her into his arms.
“I was hoping to catch you before you left for New Jersey in the morning. But I hadn’t expected you to be here tonight.”
She nodded. “I pulled a double today. Mr. Fletcher had emergency surgery this morning. It lasted six hours. And since I had promised him that I would be in the operating room with him… Well, I wasn’t going anywhere.”
“How is he?”
“The last time I checked, his condition had stabilized. That’s a good sign.” She tilted her head and looked at him. “So why did you want to catch me before I left town tomorrow, Parker?”
“I think we need to talk,” he said, coming within six feet of her and then stopping. Seeing her here, now, when he hadn’t expected to, was having a hell of an effect on him. He’d already known that he loved her, but until that moment, he hadn’t known just how much.
“What do we need to talk about?”
He shoved his hands into the pockets of his jeans. “I think I made a few mistakes where you were concerned.”
“Oh, really?”
When he saw the way that she’d lifted her chin and stiffened her spine, he immediately knew she had taken his words out of context. “Sorry, I didn’t mean that the way it sounded.”
“And just how did you mean it, Parker?” she asked curtly.
“Can we sit down?” he asked.
For a minute, he thought she would refuse his request, but then she eased down on the sofa. “Okay, Parker, what’s up?”
He crossed the room to sit in the wing-back chair across from her. “I think you misunderstood my intentions, Sebrina.”
She frowned. “If you’re trying to tell me that you think I put more stock in our affair than you did, then you’ve wasted your time. I knew all you wanted was an affair that led nowhere.”
Parker placed his elbows on his thighs and leaned forward. “And that’s where I made my mistake, Sebrina. I never thought I was having an affair with you.”
“Then maybe ‘affair’ isn’t the right word to use. Maybe it was just overwhelming sexual attraction, that we acted on to see if we could rid ourselves of it.”
“That might have been our plan originally, but things changed.”
She lifted a brow. “Really?” she asked sarcastically. “Then why wasn’t I told?”
“That was my fault, but in my defense, I didn’t want to rush you.”
Sebrina tilted her head and stared at him with a furrowed brow. She seemed totally confused. “What are you talking about?”
He stared at her for a moment, before saying. “I am talking about what changed. I fell in love with you, Sebrina.”
“Yeah, right.”
He frowned. She didn’t believe him. But then, he couldn’t very much blame her for assuming he’d only wanted an affair. He hadn’t given her any reason to think otherwise. “I take it you don’t believe me.”
“Of course, I don’t. You’ve been thinking with the wrong head, if you know what I mean.”
He knew what she meant, and he didn’t like it one damn bit. But he couldn’t get mad at her, he could only get mad at himself. They hadn’t exactly talked about the future at all. “Mom was right.”
“Excuse me?”
He met her gaze. “I said my mother was right. When I told my parents that I had fallen in love, Mom asked if I had told you. When I told her that I hadn’t, she said I’d made a mistake, that a woman should know when a man loves her. And that it’s important for her to know that a man wants her in his life, not just in his bed.” He took a deep breath. “That’s why I came back to talk to you, Sebrina. I needed to make sure you knew I wanted you—in my life, in my bed…in my future.”
CHAPTER FORTY-ONE
SEBRINA SAT THERE AND stared at Parker, almost in shock. Sure, she knew she loved him, but she’d never dreamed he’d felt the same way about her. He’d never told her he loved her. But then, she hadn’t said the words to him, either. Was there really a chance for them to be together? And had he actually talked to his parents about her?
She shook her head to clear it. He was sitting across from her, staring at her as if he couldn’t understand why she wouldn’t see that his words made make perfect sense. But they didn’t. She had questions. “When did you realize that you loved me?”
He leaned back in the chair and smiled, as if he was actually remembering the moment. “I think I fell for you the moment you opened the door to me that first time. But I only realized my feelings for you for what they were the night we made love. And I knew for certain that day we spent together at the zoo.”
She was pretty sure she had fallen in love with him that first day as well. Although she’d spent most of her life trying to avoid being vulnerable to love again, but had to admit, that day at the zoo had been a turning point for her, too. “But you never told me.”
“I know. I was assuming that you would know the way I felt every time we made love. Because it was love, not sexual desire, that was driving my passion for you, Sebrina.”
“But we’ve never even gone out on a real date.”
“We’ve gone a lot places together. It didn’t matter to me if we called them dates or outings. All I know is that the more time I spent with you, the harder I fell.”
Outings. She’d insisted on that word, because she hadn’t wanted the scandal of a broken affair with him when he eventually packed up and left town without her. She hadn’t wanted to risk her heart getting broken a second time. “But…but I thought I was just another woman you slept with.”
“No, Sebrina. You were never that. When we were together in bed, it wasn’t sex. It was love.”
Shivers rushed through her, thinking of those times. “I didn’t know,” she said softly, still trying to believe this was happening.
He stood and she watched as he crossed the room toward her, her heart kicked up a notch with every step he took. She scooted over, allowing him to sit down beside her. Then he turned to face her and took her hand in his. “I do love you, Sebrina. And if you accept my love, we can become a team. I want to be a part of your life, just like I want you to be a part of mine.”
“And when you leave in a year?” she asked, holding his gaze.
“I’m hoping you will go with me. But if you want to remain here, so will I.”
She pulled back, shocked. “You will give up your dream for me? Your once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to be mentored by Dr. McIntyre?”
He smiled at her. “Loving you is the once-in-a-lifetime opportunity that I will cherish the most.”
Suddenly, Sebrina couldn’t stop the tears that welled up in her eyes. She wanted to swipe at them, but Parker was holding her hands. Seeing her dilemma, he leaned in and licked her tears away. And then he captured her mouth, and he began kissing her in a way that she could feel in every part of her body.
He released her mouth and whispered against her moist lips, “I love you.”