He laughed. “I love you, Annalise O’Neil. I fucking love you.”

After I made him say it a dozen or more times, Bennett filled me in on my injuries. The soreness in my chest was due to a broken rib. I hadn’t even noticed the cast on my left wrist from a fractured ulna, and apparently I had bumps and bruising all over. The worst of it had been a partial collapse of one of my lungs, which they had treated with a needle to suck out the air from around the outside of the lung, and it had re-inflated on its own. Basically, I was damn lucky.

More things started to come back to me the longer I stayed awake. I remembered that Mom, Matteo, and Madison had all been here. And Andrew, too. He had two black eyes and a bandage on his nose, but he’d said he was fine.

“Did everyone go home?”

Bennett nodded. “I promised your mom and Matteo I’d call if anything changed. They’ll be back first thing in the morning. Madison threatened my life if I didn’t text her updates every few hours.” He fed me more ice chips. They felt so good on my sore throat. “She’s pretty damn scary.”

“What about Andrew? Were you arguing with him earlier in my room?”

The smile on Bennett’s face fell. “I’d been calling your phone all night. When I finally got through, he answered. And the douchebag told me you were in bed. Didn’t mention in the hospital or anything. Then he hung up on me.”

Oh boy. “You must’ve thought…”

The clench of his jaw answered.

“You thought I went back to him?”

“I didn’t know what to think.”

“How did you find out what happened?”

“I camped out in front of your apartment. Eventually Matteo showed up.”

Wait... “So when did you speak to Andrew then?”

Bennett shrugged. “I don’t know. Early in the afternoon. Maybe about one?”

“But you waited in front of my building even though you thought I’d gone back to Andrew?”

He cupped my cheek. “I wasn’t losing you without a fight.”

That made my heart swell. “You would have taken me back even if I’d—”

Bennett put his finger to my mouth and stopped me from continuing. “Don’t even say it. I don’t even want to know why you were in the car with him. Just tell me we’re good and it won’t be happening again.”

“Nothing happened with Andrew. I was giving him a ride home because he said his car was in the shop. He was at Lauren’s house for dinner.”

Bennett’s head dropped. “Thank freaking Christ. Because I quit my job. You’re stuck with me here in San Francisco.”

My eyes went wide. “What? Why would you do that?”

“Because I’m not letting you move to Texas.”

“Uh…I think you’re getting a little ahead of yourself. You’re the one who would be moving to Texas when I win.”

Bennett rolled his eyes as he smoothed hair away from my face. “Yeah, you’re probably right. But either way, we’re both staying put now.”

Chapter 49

* * *

Bennett

“You’re supposed to be resting.” I tossed my keys on the kitchen counter and set down a bag of groceries. I’d gone to the office for a few hours while Annalise’s mom took her to a post-release check-up.

“I’m fine. I got this. The doctor said I’m doing great.” Annalise bent to dig a pot out of the bottom of the cabinet. The view of her ass was spectacular, but I didn’t want her to hurt herself. I wrapped my arms around her waist and lifted her out of my way.

“Let me.”

She sighed when I emptied the contents of the cabinet onto the counter so she could pick what she needed. “You know, I’m going to have to function on my own anyway. You need to start looking for a new job, and I should probably be going back to my apartment. I’ve been here almost two weeks, and you’re going to get sick of me soon.”

I pushed a piece of hair from her face. “The doctor said you need to go slow because your lung is still recuperating. You’re not ready for three flights of stairs in your walk-up. You need an elevator.”

I’d made Annalise come home with me after she was released from the hospital. She’d agreed because I hadn’t given her much choice. But she was getting stronger every day, and soon enough she’d be fine to go home, even if that day wasn’t today. I just wanted her here.

“I could stay with my mom for a while. She has a spare bedroom on the first floor.”

I slipped a finger under her chin and lifted so our eyes met. “Are you sick of me?”

She cupped my cheeks. “God, no. How can I be sick of you when you wait on me hand and foot and wash my hair in the bathtub so I don’t get my cast wet?”

“Then why do you want to leave?”

“I don’t. But I also don’t want to overstay my welcome, Bennett. I feel up to doing things now, and except for the stairs, there’s no reason I need to be here anymore.”

I shook my head. “No reason? How about you want to be here?”

She softened. “Of course I do. But you know what I mean.”

I lifted her up and set her on the kitchen counter so we were eye to eye. “I don’t, actually. So let’s talk. Do you like my place?”

She turned to look at the living room and the view out the windows. “Uh, it makes my place look like a shithole. It’s depressing walking into my apartment after leaving yours.”

“So you like the apartment. How about the roommate?”

She leaned forward and pressed her lips to mine. “He’s spoiling me. Plus, the view when he comes out of the shower in just a towel blows the view of the Golden Gate Bridge from the living room out of the water.”

I wound her ponytail around my hand and kept her mouth to mine when she attempted to pull back. She opened when I slid my tongue between those luscious lips. I kissed her long and hard, and my heart felt full again.

The last few weeks, I’d been happier than I’d been my whole life. I knew I didn’t want this to end. The kiss was all the assurance I needed.

“Good.” I gave her pony a light tug. “Then it’s settled. You’ll move in. I’ll arrange for a moving company to go over to your place this weekend and pack up your stuff.”

Annalise’s eyes widened. “What?”

“You like the apartment better than yours. You’re hot for your roommate.” I shrugged. “Why leave?”

“Are you…are you asking me to move in with you permanently?”

I looked back and forth between her eyes. “I’m saying I want you here when I get up in the morning, and I want you here when I go to bed at night. I want your four different newspapers spread all over our bed, and your ridiculous amount of shoes filling our closet. I want you wearing my T-shirts to cook us breakfast when you’re feeling up to it again, and I sure as shit want you underneath me, on top of me, on your knees on our bedroom floor, and tied to the headboard while I eat you for dessert.” I paused. “Is that any clearer?”

She chewed her bottom lip. “There’s something I need to tell you first.”

I stiffened. “What?”

She rubbed her nose with mine and wrapped her arms around my neck. “I love you, Bennett Fox.”

I dropped my head and let out a big rush of air. “Are you trying to give me a heart attack? Saying there’s something you need to tell me? I thought… I don’t even know what I thought. But it didn’t sound fucking good.”

Annalise laughed. “Sorry.”

I squinted. “I’ll give you sorry. What the hell took you so long to tell me that, anyway? You left me hanging out there for weeks.”

She grabbed my T-shirt into two fistfuls and tugged me to her. “I wanted to be off the painkillers and meds that made me groggy so you’d have no doubt I meant it.”

I pulled my neck back. “You stopped the meds? The doctor said it was okay?”

She looked down and scraped her fingernail along my arm. Then she looked up under her lashes with the sexiest fuck-me eyes. “He also said it was okay to resume all activities. I just need to go easy.”

I’d been sporting the start of an erection since I walked in the door and saw her bent over. I needed confirmation before I got my hopes up. It had been a long-ass three weeks since her accident. “All activities?”

She wiggled her eyebrows. “All.”

The kitchen counter was the perfect height, and I wouldn’t crush her in this position. Plus, no wasting time walking to the bedroom. Reaching around to her ass, I pulled her to the very edge of the counter and pressed my growing hard-on between her legs. I felt the heat of her pussy through my pants and groaned.

Did I mention it had been three weeks?

“The right thing to do would probably be to make love to you right now. But I’m going to have to owe you slow and sweet, because I need you hard and fast before I’m calm enough to go slow.”

She ran her tongue along my bottom lip and then bit down unexpectedly. “Hard works for me.”