“Absolutely.” She lightly bumped her pelvis against his. “Are you ready?”

A half laugh, half groan escaped him. “God, yes. Unfortunately there’s nothing I can do about it until I get you alone. But once I do-” he yanked her tighter against him, making it very obvious that he was indeed ready “-you’re in big trouble.”

Good Lord, she hoped so. She wrapped her arms around his neck and lifted up on her toes to brush her lips over his. “Oh, yeah? Watch it, big guy. Maybe you’re the one who’ll be in trouble.”

“Sweetheart, I’ve been in trouble since the first moment I saw you.”

“You make it sound like that’s a bad thing.”

He shook his head, framed her face between his large hands that still bore a hint of chill from outside and looked at her through suddenly serious eyes. “Best damn thing that ever happened to me.”

Jessica’s heart flipped over and she swallowed around the sudden tightness in her throat. He leaned forward and rested his forehead against hers. “Everything is going to be okay, Jess. I promise. Have I ever broken a promise to you?”

She shook her head and their noses bumped. “No.”

“And I’m not going to start now. We’ll work this out. All of it.”

She leaned back and looked at him. There was no doubt he believed what he said, and that confidence, along with the love shining in his eyes, bolstered her belief that he was right. And here, in this cozy setting, where it was just the two of them, free from all the outside pressures that constantly bombarded them, the way it had been for those first six glorious months they were together, before they’d announced their engagement and all hell broke loose, all seemed right with the world.

“You are, without a doubt, the sweetest, kindest, most patient-not to mention the sexiest-man I’ve ever met.”