Dr. Good by Flora Ferrari

Chapter Twenty-Three

Macie

“What a wonderful day this is,” Kayla says, smiling at me as she takes a sip of her iced tea.

I look out over the glittering landscape of the city, and I have to agree with her. Even after all that happened – it’s been two days since the madness with Derrick and since the sex that changed my life forever – Kayla has been able to clothe herself in optimism.

I envy her ability to let go of everything that happened.

But then again, I’ve also been able to focus on the present more lately, focus on the way Miller feels against me when we collapse into bed together, focus on his hot breath as I take the lead and ride him to a mutual shivering finish.

I push those carnal thoughts from my mind, reminding myself they’re hardly appropriate when I’m sitting with his mother.

“It is lovely,” I agree.

Her smile gets even wider, her eyes twinkling with the same quality as her pearls. “And I think it’s only going to get better.”

“What do you mean?”

She shrugs, a mysterious expression shaping her features, acting like the most innocent woman in the world. “Oh, I don’t know. I suppose you’ll just have to wait and see.”

A thought arises in my mind, spiraling through me, sending tendrils of love clawing through my body. I try to remind myself to be cautious, not to let my want stampede ahead of my reason, but the thought remains.

Could this be the day?

The day my man finally tells me he loves me?

We’ve had so many moments where I felt like one of us would say it, but then at the last second, we backed out, perhaps driven by fear that the other person wouldn’t say it back.

But it’s also possible I’ve imagined Miller being close to saying it, that this is all in my head and I’m going to embarrass myself if I make the first move.

“You know you’re making no sense right now, don’t you?”

She smiles widely, flashing her teeth in a way that reminds me of Miller. “Dear, when you get to my age, you don’t have to make sense. It’s one of the privileges of being so ancient.”

“You’re not ancient,” I say passionately. “You’re… experienced.”

She raises her iced tea with a broad smile. “Yes, that sounds much better. Let’s go with that. You’re a lovely girl, Macie. I can’t tell you how glad I am you came into Miller’s life.”

Emotion swirls around me, as I sink into the feeling that I’ve finally found a home, that I finally belong after so many years of searching.

“Thank you. I’m so happy we get along. You know, it could’ve been pretty awkward otherwise…”

She chuckles. “No fear of that, dear. You’re very easy to get along with. You’re going to make a wonderful mother.”

I smile, even as a blush tries to touch my cheeks.

Normally, compliments like this would drive me to make follow-up comments, diffusing the niceties, trying to throw shade on how kind she’s being.

But after all the changes Miller has inspired within me, I don’t feel the need anymore.

I let my thoughts linger on Kayla’s comment, about how today is only going to get better.

And I hope, I dream that I’m right.

I love you, Miller, I whisper silently.

But does he love me too?

* * *

I spend the day at my laptop, typing away with a speed I’ve never reached before. It’s strange, but knowing that I can always rely on Miller, knowing he wants me for who I am, knowing I don’t have to be so freaking anxious all the time makes it so much easier to focus on my work.

I’m not sure what the connection is, but as my fingers surge across the keyboard, I’m not about to question it.

I lose myself in the story, made easier by the fact that I imagine that the giant is Miller and I’m the woman he falls in love with.

The romance is so much easier to bring to life on the page when I’ve felt it, though crazily I do have to rein it back a little because nobody would believe how quickly Miller and I fell for each other.

If we told others, they’d undoubtedly call us liars, saying that getting this close this fast is impossible.

But it’s not.

It’s achingly real.

And I’m just so freaking grateful it happened to us.

I stop when I hear the door open behind me, swiveling in the chair to find my man standing at the door. He fills the doorframe, wearing a steel-gray suit that matches the captivating color of his hair.

His dark eyes glint as they move over me, his signature smirk touching his lips.

“Don’t stop on my account,” he says, striding across the room.

Even though we’ve had sex at least half a dozen times since we first consumed each other, I can’t help but feel my body stirring passionately at the sight of him, at the closeness of him.

He stops just short of the desk, standing over me with his jaw tight, glittering silver as the late-day sunlight shafts through the window and bounces against his five o’clock shadow.

“I just finished a chapter,” I tell him. “So I’m all yours.”

I leap up and throw my arms around his shoulders, standing on my tiptoes to kiss him firmly on the lips. He growls through the tight press of our lips, kissing me back even harder, his hand firm on the small of my back as he pushes our bodies together.

My nipples graze against his rock hard body, sending shivering tingles dancing through me.

“Good,” he growls, keeping our faces close once the kiss is over. “Because there’s somewhere I want to take you.”

My belly swirls with a thousand possibilities. “Where?”

He smirks and kisses the edge of my mouth, causing more starry light to shiver through me. “You wouldn’t want to ruin the surprise, would you?”

I giggle and look up at him, into the glimmering intensity of his eyes, praying I haven’t gotten this wrong. “What surprise?”

He laughs deeply. “That would be ruining it. Come on. Let’s go for a drive.”

I nod and swallow a big ball of nerves, and then together we ride the elevator down to his private garage. He leads me over to a sleek sports car, jet-black and so shiny I can see our reflections in it as we walk toward it.

I study us as we approach, this short curvy girl next to this hulking giant, and instead of aiming critical comments at myself, I think, Yeah, they suit each other. They work.

The doors flip up like a bird’s wings and then we climb inside.

He leads us out of the city, growling over the bridge and into the surrounding countryside.

My nerves start to spiral as my gaze flits over the country houses, beautiful places set down long gravel lanes, behind Victorian-looking gates, with fountains and gargoyles, making me think of a house full of children and their footsteps echoing all around us as they play.

And then he pulls into one of the homes, the sports car bumping up and down on the gravel road.

I giggle, looking across at my man. “We should’ve brought an off-roader.”

He grins across at me, widely, his eyes glimmering with what seems like genuine happiness. It’s not like his usual smirk, edged with carnality.

This is a smile, and it lights me up inside.

“We can always repave it,” he says.

I gasp as my gaze moves over the estate. It’s the biggest one we’ve seen yet, with a glittering golden-colored gate and a gorgeous fountain sitting out front.

“Wait… what do you mean we… are you saying…”

He chuckles and drives us to the gate, and as we get closer I see a big red ribbon across it like it’s a gift. I look past the gate to the house, the mansion, a sprawling structure that reminds me of a house from a Regency drama.

He smiles playfully as he pulls the car to a stop outside the gate. “Come on.”

He climbs from the car, striding over to the gate, and I grab for the door handle. My heart is hammering with all the potential wonder of this moment, buzzing through me with all that this could mean, and I end up fumbling the door handle.

Eventually, I pull it and it springs open. I climb from the car and race after him, my heart thudding through my body, a lump of emotion in my throat.

“Just to make this clear,” I murmur, my voice shaky. “You’re saying this place is ours?”

He laughs and pulls me into an embrace, leaning down and laying a hot kiss against my cheek. “Yes, this is ours… this is where we’ll raise our family. This is where you’ll write your bestsellers unless you want an office in the city. This is our home, Macie, and I wanted to tell you here, so we’d always remember it.”

“Tell me what?” I whisper, tears pricking my eyes.

“I love you,” he growls passionately.

I gasp as the force of his words move over me.

“I love you,” he says, his lips twitching into a smile as he brings his face close to mine, our noses tickling each other as he gazes firmly into my eyes. “I loved you the moment I saw you. I love you more than I could ever explain, but I’ll prove it to you… every day of our life, I’ll work my ass off to show you how much I love you.”

“I love you too,” I whisper as a sob cracks my words, as I struggle not to collapse into a heap of tears.

He steps back and then falls to one knee, smiling up at me as he reaches into his inside jacket pocket.

Now I do collapse into tears, a hot joyful emotion gripping me firmly, streaming down my cheeks.

“Macie Grahams,” he says huskily, “I love you more than anything. I need to spend the rest of my life with you, to be with you as you flower in your career and bring our children into this world. Will you marry me?”

He takes out a ring box and opens it, showing a large diamond set within a white gold band, looking hefty and elegant at the same time. It should be an impossible combination, and yet – just like so much with us – it works, impossible or not.

“Yes,” I whisper, and then I yell it louder. “Yes, yes, yes.”

“Yes?” he says, his voice shivering.

“Yes.”

He takes my hand and slides the ring on, the metal feeling cool and right on my skin.

He leaps up and pulls me into his arms, and we sink into a loving kiss, a kiss that sends flurrying emotions all around my body as I moan and he growls through our closeness, both of us ready to face our future… together.

Alwaystogether.

Forever.