He shook his head before pulling her close to bury his face in the crook of her neck while holding tight. After a long moment, he whispered hoarsely, “I don’t deserve you.”
Shelby smiled slightly and rolled her eyes even though he couldn’t see her. “Sure you do.”
“No, I don’t, but I love the hell out of you, so I’m keeping you anyway.”
“I love the hell out of you, too. However...” She pulled back, arching her brow as she tilted her head. “Who said it’s your choice? Maybe I’m keeping you.”
He gave a wry grin before dropping a feather-soft kiss on her mouth. “In that case, it’s definitely your choice. Always.”
“I choose you, Dev. It’s always been you, and always will be.”
She rose up and pressed her mouth more firmly to his. After a long moment, his lips parted and he gently deepened the kiss. The slow, cherishing strokes of his tongue against hers echoed the overwhelming welling of emotion from the depths of her soul.
Her heart was near bursting when he eased back from the kiss and straightened them away from the building. Dev’s gaze shifted to her cheek again, and then he bent to retrieve the ice pack she hadn’t even realized she’d dropped. A quick swipe against his jeans got rid of any dirt before he pressed it back to her face. “We should go get this checked out.”
She made a negative sound while taking hold of the compress. “It’s all surface. I’m okay.”
“Shelby…”
“I’m good, Dev. I promise.” When he still didn’t look convinced, she took his hand with her free one and pulled him toward his truck. “All I want is for you to take me home. Just you and me.”
He follo
wed as she continued to back up. “We are going to have to call your parents. Not only are they going to want to hear directly from you that you’re okay, if your Dad hears about it from the cops first, I’ll be back in the doghouse.”
Her steps slowed. “When were you were in the doghouse?”
“When your dad thought I was fucking around on the job.”
She stopped abruptly, eyes wide. “He said that?”
“No, but he didn’t have to.” He leaned in to drop a kiss on her nose while reaching past to open the passenger door for her. “Don’t worry, we cleared the air this morning, and he gave me his blessing.”
Shelby felt for the running board with her heel and stepped up so she was looking down at him by a couple of inches. She reached back to toss the ice pack on the seat, then draped her arms over his shoulders. “You didn’t need his blessing. My dad doesn’t get to decide who I date.”
“Maybe not, but my future father-in-law’s respect matters to me.”
Of course it did, and she loved him even more for that. Though the future father-in-law had her shaking her head in mock disapproval. “You haven’t even asked me yet.”
A smart-ass smirk tugged at the corners of his mouth. “And yet you already said yes.”
“You still have to ask.”
“I will.”
“When?” she asked with a grin.
He reached up to pull her arms from around his neck, then clasped her hands together, with his on the outside. His gaze met hers from under his lashes while he pressed his lips to the back of her hands. “When you least expect it.”
Which was fine by her. She hadn’t expected to run into him in the stairwell at the hospital a month ago. She hadn’t expected that he’d become her bodyguard and teach her how to save her own ass.
Most of all, she hadn’t expected the man of her dreams would become an amazing reality ten times better than any fantasy she’d ever had.
Epilogue
A little over two months later, on a warm evening in early May, Shelby’s heart swelled with happiness as a crowd of smiling faces watched her take the makeshift stage Dev had set up for her outside the doors of her new veterinary clinic—and his attached gym. When he hung back at the stairs, she turned from the top with an arch of her brows.
“Come up with me.”