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  He touched a finger to her lips to stop her next words and Cris frowned up at him. Dylan pulled his fingers away.

  “I’m sorry. It was necessary,” he said. “I was wrong. I was mean and stupid.”

  Cris took a step back from him. She folded her arms over her chest and tilted her head to stare and wait for him to continue.

  “I wanted to push you away because a few months after you left for law school it finally started to make sense to me that it was normal for you to leave. My parents had spent a lifetime leaving me. Sure, they dragged me mostly everywhere they went, but with each trip, each time they chose business and their careers over me, they were actually leaving me. So I got used to that.” He shrugged.

  “I figured that’s how my life was meant to be.”

  “It doesn’t have to be,” she told him, her voice a little scratchy because she wasn’t prepared for the emotion welling up in her throat.

  “I know. You showed me that. Coming back to D.C. and putting yourself right in my path no matter how hard I tried to skirt around you and what had been brewing between us for so long. You saved me, Cristine.”

  She shook her head. “But you didn’t want to be saved.”

  “No,” he said with a sigh. “I didn’t. But I’ve had a lot of time to think about that and how it wasn’t necessarily a bad thing. I’ve made some decisions in my business and personal life, but they’re all contingent on you.”

  “What do you mean? How do your business decisions affect me?”

  He stepped closer to her. With his finger he pushed back one of the loose curls that had fallen from her up-do while she was dancing.

  “Because I cannot live without you.”

  Cris could only blink at him, words were temporarily lost.

  “I could go on the way I was and so could you, but we wouldn’t be happy. We wouldn’t be complete. We’re more than best friends, Cris, we’re two halves of a whole. And I need you in order to move forward with my life.”

  Seconds seemed like hours as her muteness continued.

  “I love you, Cris.”

  Now Cris knew what she was supposed to say. She knew what she felt and how long she’d waited to hear those words from Dylan in a non-platonic way. But giving in easily was not in her nature. She stepped back from him once more.

  “What decisions did you make concerning business that involve me?”

  Dylan chuckled. “I should have known you’d make me grovel.”

  “Hell yeah, you deserve it after your sour attitude the last few weeks. Now tell me what’s going on.”

  He stuffed his hands into his front pockets and nodded. “Okay, so remember you were trying to figure out why you didn’t want the job as a transactional attorney?”

  “Uh huh.”

  “Well, at the same time I was wondering why I’d become so intent on helping a neighborhood I’d never lived in become more viable. I told myself it was because I owed it to Mama Peaches. I mean, even though I only stayed with her for six months and this new project has nothing to do with the good work she’s doing in Southlake. She has inspired so many aspects of my life and I owed her for being so kind to me for those six months, but that’s not all. I realized that I owed it to myself to do something I could really be proud of, something that would help people that look like me.”

  “I don’t understand where this is going.”

  “It’s going to Chicago, with me. And hopefully you too. I want you to move to Chicago and open a law firm with me. A firm where we would offer assistance to not only the citizens in Century Heights, but anyone else who may not otherwise be able to afford legal services.”

  Cris could not believe it. Had he been snooping into her thoughts these past two weeks? “I decided I wanted to open my own firm, to take the cases that were important to me and that would help people, not just corporations. How did you know?”

  He shrugged. “I didn’t. I was actually hoping you wouldn’t get angry at me for being presumptuous and making these plans without consulting with you first.”

  “But you are consulting with me now, right? You haven’t actually opened your own firm yet?”

  “No. I’d like it to be a partnership.”

  She smiled and said, “Palmer and James LLP. I like the sound of that.”

  Dylan shook his head. “James and James,” he told her. “I’m asking you to be my business and lifetime partner.”

  Cris could only shake her head at first, then those pesky little tears that she swore only wanted to make an appearance for Dylan, showed up again.

  “I think I’ve loved you forever,” she admitted.

  Dylan came close to her again. He cupped her face in his hands this time and kissed her lips softly, “Good because I’d rather not think of you placing a bid on anyone else for the rest of our lives.”

  “Not a chance,” she whispered and wrapped her arms around his neck. “You were the first, the last and the only lover I would ever bid on, Dylan James.”

  “That’s good to hear, future Mrs. Cristine James.”

  Dylan didn’t wait for a response from her this time, his lips were on hers once more and by joining in that kiss, Cris’s answer was given.

  Also by AC Arthur

  Contemporary Romance—Series and Single Titles by AC Arthur

  The Donovan Series, Donovan Friends, & Donovan Dynasty books (in reading order)

  Book 1: LOVE ME LIKE NO OTHER

  Book 2: A CINDERELLA AFFAIR

  Donovan Friends #1: GUARDING HIS BODY

  Book 3: DEFYING DESIRE

  Book 4: FULL HOUSE SEDUCTION

  Book 5: TOUCH OF FATE

  Donovan Friends #2: SUMMER HEAT

  Donovan Friends #3: WINTER KISSES

  Book 6: HOLIDAY HEARTS

  Book 7: DESIRE A DONOVAN

  Book 8: SURRENDER TO A DONOVAN

  Book 9: PLEASURED BY A DONOVAN

  Book 10: HEART OF A DONOVAN

  Donovan Friends #4: A CHRISTMAS WISH

  part of the Under The Mistletoe Anthology

  Donovan Friends #5: ALWAYS MY VALENTINE

  Book 11: EMBRACED BY A DONOVAN

  Book 12: WRAPPED IN A DONOVAN

  Donovan Friends #6: ALWAYS IN MY HEART

  Book 13: IN THE ARMS OF A DONOVAN

  Book 14: FALLING FOR A DONOVAN

  Book 15: DESTINY OF A DONOVAN

  Donovan Friends #7: FOR ALWAYS

  The Donovan Dynasty #1: DANE

  Donovan Friends #8: THE WINTER WEDDING

  * * *

  The Office Series

  Book 1: OFFICE POLICY

  Book 2: CORPORATE SEDUCTION

  * * *

  The Indecent Series

  Book 1: INDECENT PROPOSAL

  Book 2: INDECENT EXPOSURE

  * * *

  Rules of the Game Trilogy

  Book 1: RULES OF THE GAME

  Book 2: REVELATIONS

  Book 3: REDEMPTION

  * * *

  The Carrington Chronicles

  Book 1: WANTING YOU - Part One

  Book 2: WANTING YOU - Part Two

  Book 3: NEEDING YOU

  Book 4: HAVING YOU

  * * *

  The Rumors Series

  Book 1: RUMORS

  Book 2: REVEALED

  * * *

  The Royal Weddings

  Book 1: TO MARRY A PRINCE

  Book 2: LOVING THE PRINCESS

  Book 3: PRINCE EVER AFTER

  Book 4: TAMING THE PRINCE

  * * *

  The Temptation Series

  Book 1: ONE MISTLETOE WISH

  Book 2: ONE UNFORGETTABLE KISS

  Book 3: ONE PERFECT MOMENT

  Book 4: ONE CHRISTMAS SONG

  * * *

  Fashion & Passion

  Book 1: A PRIVATE AFFAIR (Coming 2019)

  Book 2: AT YOUR SERVICE (Coming 2020)

  * * *

  OBJECT OF HIS DESIRE

  UNCONDITIONAL

  LO
VE ME CAREFULLY

  HEART OF THE PHOENIX

  SECOND CHANCE, BABY

  SING YOUR PLEASURE

  DECADENT DREAMS

  EVE OF PASSION

  Contemporary Small Town Romance (w/a LACEY BAKER)

  The Sweetland Series

  Book 1: HOMECOMING

  Book 2: JUST LIKE HEAVEN

  Book 3: SUMMER’S MOON

  * * *

  A GINGERBREAD ROMANCE (Coming Oct 2019)

  Sexy Paranormal Romance

  The Shadow Shifters (in reading order)

  Book 1: TEMPTATION RISING

  Book 2: SEDUCTION’S SHIFT

  Book 3: PASSION’S PREY

  * * *

  The Damaged Hearts Series

  (Shadow Shifters Spinoff)

  Book 1: MINE TO CLAIM

  Book 2: PART OF ME

  Book 3: HUNGER FOR YOU

  Book 1-3: DAMAGED HEARTS BOX SET

  * * *

  Book 4: SHIFTER’S CLAIM

  Book 5: HUNGER’S MATE

  Book 6: PRIMAL HEAT

  Book 7: A LION’S HEART

  * * *

  The Wolf Mates

  The Alpha’s Woman (Available as part of the GROWL Anthology and CLAIMED BY THE MATE VOL.1 Duology)

  Her Perfect Mates (Available as part of the WILD Anthology and CLAIMED BY THE MATE VOL.2 Duology)

  Bound to the Wolf (Available as part of the HUNGER Anthology and CLAIMED BY THE MATE VOL.3 Duology)

  * * *

  The Legion

  Book 1: AWAKEN THE DRAGON (November 2019)

  Young Adult Paranormal (w/a ARTIST ARTHUR)

  The Mystyx Series

  Book 1: MANIFEST

  Book 2: MYSTIFY

  Book 3: MAYHEM

  A Mystyx Novella: MUTINY

  Book 4: MESMERIZE

  About the Author

  Stay in touch with A.C. on the web!

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