He nodded. “Yes, that was the Bureau’s plan. That job was my last assignment, and I’d made a lot of enemies. Had I survived and it became known I’d worked undercover, I would have spent the rest of my life looking over my shoulder. Staging Addison Bracey’s death was the best way to move on with my life. To all who knew him, he is officially a dead man.”
Kennedy swiped at her eyes as she walked over to the window and looked out, trying to absorb what Haddison had just told her. He had been the third bank robber. The one who’d made her feel safe.
She had never felt the ruthlessness or cruelty from him that she’d felt from the other two. Especially that Vince guy. Haddison had been mean to her to keep his cover, but she’d still felt protected in some way.
And while still believing he was one of them, a bank robber with no morals, she had kissed him. And he had kissed her back. And during that kiss she’d felt things she hadn’t felt before or again since…until Haddison.
“Kennedy?”
He was standing directly behind her. She could feel his heat. And hers. And as usual, they were mingling, even without body contact. Haddison could do that with no effort — stir heat between them. He’d done it that day seven months ago, and was doing it again now.
She slowly turned to him, as if seeing him for the first time, in a whole new light. Not as the man she’d recently fallen in love with, but as the man she had fallen in love with months ago. She hadn’t understood it then, but thanks to his admission, she understood it now.
“Although I only saw your face for a quick moment, I remembered your eyes and how they looked at me through your ski mask. When I bumped into you, I could have sworn I saw those same eyes. But I convinced myself I’d imagined it. The same thing happened the night we made love for the first time. You stared down at me, and I saw Bracey. It made me feel bad. Here I was, about to make love to you, while thinking of another man. It happened again and again, and each time I told myself I was imagining things. But I really wasn’t, was I?”
“No, Kennedy, you weren’t.”
“What about your voice? It isn’t the same. I could clearly recall the sound of his voice.”
He nodded. “That was one of the things that made me such a good agent. I can change my voice. When I worked undercover, I took on a totally different persona, one with a different voice.”
He drew in a deep breath. “The reason I’m telling you this now — when it could mean my death if the details of my involvement with the mob is ever revealed — is because I trust you and want you to know the truth.”
His words suddenly gave her pause. He was basically putting his life in her hands, risking it on the trust he undoubtedly had for her…even after she’d questioned hers for him. That meant a lot to her, and deep down, she knew it meant something monumental to him.
“Does your uncle know we’ve met before?”
“Yes. He’s the only one I’ve told, and I only informed him of it today.”
He took a step forward, and now he was there, in her face. It was as if whatever he intended to say, he needed her to hear him without any difficulty. “I believe when I met you that day, regardless of the circumstances, that I began feeling things for you. And things have only grown stronger over the past seven months.”
She nodded. “As crazy as it sounds, I can believe that, because I feel the same way. I thought you were a bad-ass, corrupt and ruthless, but not as much as those other two. There was something about you that made me feel safe. For heaven’s sake, I kissed you.”
“You don’t know how many nights afterwards that I laid awake remembering that kiss and wishing it could have lasted longer.”
She’d felt the same way. She’d thought of him and that kiss a lot, too. “The first time we kissed as Haddison and Kennedy, it reminded me of that kiss, and I thought I was going crazy,” she said. “I felt bad for connecting the two when I assumed you were a different man. Now I understand why I did.”
He looked at her intently. “And now that you know the truth — all of it — where do we go from here, Kennedy?”
She decided to let him answer his own question. “Where do you want to go from here, Haddison?”
He took a step closer, so close their bodies were now touching. “I want forever with you, Kennedy.”
“Forever?”
“Yes. And for me that means marriage. I’ve fallen in love with you. I want you wearing my name, having my babies, being my forever woman.”
Kennedy felt a deep lump in her throat. No man had ever said that to her. She reached up and wrapped her arms around his neck. “I love you, too, and I want to have your name, your babies, and be your forever woman, but…”
“But what?”
How could she explain her fears to him? Fears that cautioned her not to rush into anything, especially plans of marriage.
She’d done that once already…with Charles. She had loved him, believed in him and trusted him. At the time, she’d thought his asking her to marry him meant that she was as important to him as he was to her. She’d discovered how wrong that assumption was.
“But let’s not rush into anything,” she finally said. “Although we’ve admitted to loving each other, I suggest we continue as we are for now, Haddison, and not concentrate on the name change, babies, and forever just yet.”
He studied her for a moment, seeming to understand. “That’s fine, Kennedy. But I’m not like your ex-fiancé. If I have to prove my intentions are honorable, I don’t have a problem with that. You are the only woman I want in my life. More than anything I want you as my wife.”
Then he lowered his head and captured her lips in a kiss that promised her everything she’d ever wanted.
YOU ARE STARTING TO realize just how enjoyable life can be. Pay attention to your heart and act accordingly.
Kennedy placed the newspaper down and smiled. It had been a month since that day in Haddison’s office when he’d mentioned marriage, and she hadn’t given him a definite answer yet. But if she’d been waiting for a sign, then this was definitely it. Still, she hadn’t needed to read her horoscope to know Haddison was the best thing to ever happen to her.
Because of him, her life was magical. And it would be even better, once she finally gave Haddison the answer he wanted. It wasn’t that she’d told him ‘no’. She just hadn’t told him ‘yes’ yet. But honestly, did she really have to? Hadn’t she already shown him how much she loved him?
She glanced around his living room as she took a sip of coffee. Although she hadn’t officially moved into his condo, she spent more time here than she did at her own home. They had even put up a Christmas tree last weekend.
Her father had met Haddison when he’d gone home with her for Thanksgiving. It was obvious that both her dad and Taye had liked him, but they understood her caution. Because of security reasons, no one in her family would ever know about the first time she and Haddison had met — when he’d stolen her heart during a bank robbery.
She turned when she heard a noise behind her and smiled when she saw Haddison’s handsome face. He had flown in last night from Los Angeles, where he’d been the last couple of days. The Rivers’s merger had been finalized, and he was assisting his uncle in assembling a security team there.