“I’m sorry,” he whispered, feeling every emotional wall he’d ever erected crumbling down around him as he stood staring at the best thing that had happened to him. “No, wait,” Tag told McKenna when she started to talk over him, “just listen to what I have to say.
“I’m sorry you had to see the pictures,” he began, noticing how she glared back at him, “I’m sorry that you were somehow dragged into this mess, but above all, I’m sorry that I don’t know how to express what I feel for you.
“This has never happened to me before. I didn’t want it to happen to me, yet here I find myself ready to go to my knees and beg for forgiveness because you are exactly what I didn’t want.
“You’re the woman that I want to put first above everyone else, the woman I want to have beside me through times like this when it seems as though nothing is going the way that it should, the one I could see myself going batshit crazy over, and the only woman who has ever had me considering the possibility that there is more... more for me.”
Tag held his breath, knowing that he sucked at apologies, but he had laid his heart on the line with that one.
McKenna was still standing just out of reach, but he was scared to move closer, suddenly terrified that she was going to send him on his way. That was likely what he deserved, but he wasn’t sure he’d survive it if she decided he wasn’t what she wanted.
Chapter Thirty Six
McKenna heard every single word that passed Tag’s lips. In fact, her heart had woken up somewhere after “go to my knees” and didn’t stop listening until he was finished. Now, as she searched for the words, all of the things she wanted to say to him died somewhere between her brain and her lips.
For days, she had mentally prepared speech after speech, outlining every single emotion line by line, hoping she would have the chance to tell him exactly how she felt. She’d also wanted to tell him exactly how he made her feel, including the heart wrenching pain he inflicted without a second thought.
Except, seeing him there, even more vulnerable than she had ever seen him, McKenna knew he had had a second thought. Or maybe even more.
“I... I don’t know what to say,” she said, that anxious, desperate ache once again starting deep in the center of her chest.
“You don’t have to say anything, McKenna. Just believe me.” His voice, gruff and uneven, was woven with uncertainty.
“I believe you,” she told him. She hadn’t expected those words to come out, but as soon as she said them, it wasn’t like she wanted to take them back.
Tag’s eyebrows rose as he considered her, but when he didn’t move closer, she closed the gap between them, throwing her arms around his neck and pulling him down to her.
“Wait.” Tag’s urgent plea had her pulling back slightly. “About the pictures...”
McKenna needed to tell him the truth, to let him know how sick those pictures made her, but that was because she couldn’t bear to think of him with another woman. Not in the past, not in the present and definitely not in the future. No other woman except her. “Have you been with another woman since you were with me?”
“Never.”
“Do you plan to be with another woman after me?” she asked, trying to force the grin that she could feel tugging at the corners of her mouth.
“I don’t want there to be an after,” Tag whispered, his mouth hovering just above hers.
“Then we can work it out.” McKenna pulled his head back down to hers, and this time she didn’t let him go.
She couldn’t help herself as she tried to climb his body, sucking his tongue into her mouth, holding the back of his head to her as though he would escape given half a chance. Then, when he started to pull back, gripping her hips and still holding her close, McKenna opened her eyes and peered deep into those seductive eyes.
“Not here,” Tag told her, cupping her face in both hands. “Get your things. You’re going home with me.”
Pulling back, she debated, but only for a fraction of a second before she grabbed her laptop and her purse and followed him out of her office. She watched with wide eyed fascination when Tag stopped at Whisper’s office.
“When the painter’s get here, go home. The security guard will stay with them,” he instructed, waiting for Whisper to nod her head in understanding.
A small smile passed Whisper’s lips as she and McKenna made eye contact. It was a look she had seen before on her assistant’s face, usually after she’d done something mischievous. And now that she thought about it, McKenna did find it fairly coincidental that Tag showed up all of a sudden on the same day they received the photos.