"I...I..."

"I can get the truth out of any woman. She stressed the point that you were happy being single. I couldn't take happiness away from you."

I swallowed, and he continued.

"What? You don't want the fucking truth? Well it's raw, Jennifer. You wanted it, and you'll get it. I was vulnerable. She filled the void with her presence and said you didn't care about anyone. The only thing she had heard about me was how much of a controlling asshole I was. How much you hated me. How you wished you hadn't signed the contract, and how Finnley Felton was the biggest dickhead you'd ever met. Apparently, I meant absolutely nothing. Those were your words. To hear that come from her mouth made me rethink you. Made me question your intent. Made me feel like a player who had been played. And I wondered why would she lie? A part of me told me that she didn't. That you had really said those things, and it fucking hurt. I needed to know that I didn't need you. If you hated me that badly... I wanted to truly give you a reason to hate me. I spent days dwelling over it, and I became numb. No woman had ever made me feel that way. But when I saw your face. When I saw the look on your face and the reaction you had when you walked in and stopped one of the biggest mistakes in my life, I knew it was a lie. I knew that you cared. You had feelings for me and I was a fuck-up for thinking otherwise."

I had said those things about Finnley. She improvised a bit, but that was the gist. Finnley was my best-kept secret. Hadn't he made me his? I felt like a fucking hypocritical idiot. We weren't together at that time, and he owed me no answers. He could have fucked whoever he wanted. This was the most honest he had been with me, ever.

"What about Nancy, Finn? You cheated on her with me."

He walked toward me, pinned me against the wall, and leaned into my ear.

"You're still demonizing me. Will you ever stop?"

My voice caught, and he moved to the view of the mountains. Finnley was all about control.

"That Friday, Nancy wanted to go shopping. I joined her. She forced me into a jewelry shop to look at bracelets, necklaces, and rings. Engagement rings, more specifically. She tried them on and gushed about carats and her dream wedding, but the whole time she was talking, all I could think about was you, because Jennifer Downs wouldn't leave my fucking thoughts. I was going mad, imagining arguing with you, you on my kitchen table, the way you looked into my eyes at the office as I told you Luke was ready.

"Something came over me as I listened to Nancy ramble on about making all of her monetary dreams come true. As I watched her, I asked myself what the fuck I was doing. Sometimes it takes the brain a while to catch up with the heart.

"As she continued on, I interrupted Nancy and told her it was over. The engagement ring gleamed on her finger. As I stormed out, I called Charlie to pick her up, then ran through the streets and hailed a cab. Once I got home, I drove V faster than I ever had to Luke's house. I knew then I had to have you. That this couldn't be happening, not when I finally felt something as extraordinary as love. Something that I truly didn't believe existed in my darkness. If I stood around fucking off, I would have lost you forever, and I had lost too much already."

How could I think I knew someone so well, but really didn't know him at all? Behind his steely gaze was a burning love, adoration, and care... for me. The pieces all fit together. How he busted into Luke's house in a frenzy, the way he laughed at me in the hot tub. Finn had already played his hand, but I was on a completely different game. Always two steps behind. Everything I previously thought had been shaken and stirred around.

"So, Miss Downs, quit making me out to be a bloody arsehole. While I can hang with the lot of them, the only person I ever wanted, and will ever want as long as my heart beats, is you."

He tucked a piece of fallen hair behind my ear, his fingertips grazing down my neck, and whispered, "I may be a bastard, but I am no cheater."

Emotions flooded me. Almost so strong I couldn't control the coursing heat that swept through my body. Finnley was right, all of this time, before he had rescued me, I had secretly demonized him, but for no reason. Maybe between the two of us, I was the bloody arsehole. While I was busy pointing the finger, he was busy keeping me in his best interest, protecting me, searching for me when I was lost.

"Love is like color," Finnley said.

"What do you mean?"

"Plants aren't really green, but rather a combination of colors our brains create. They are red, yellow, and orange. Love is like color because it's not always what it seems. Our hearts and minds spin the details. We make situations and people how we want them to be, just as the colors we see. Just as the sky is blue, but is it really blue, or just a reflection of oxygen molecules? I told you once that I knew what love was. I've found it more than once in life, and sometimes I feel like I don't deserve a second chance. Sometimes I find myself questioning your feelings. So we will revisit my question again, Miss Downs. Do you know what love is?"

My breath caught listening to his words. Love was kisses. Love was electrifying and good sex that left you begging for more. Love was cuddles, and snuggles, and a single moment of serendipity. Love was shaggy fuckable hair and J.B.F lips, or the way Finn commanded me, bended and molded me into the woman I would become. Love was strength, beauty, and music. Love was raw emotion that stripped people from their own skin, and being rescued from the pits of hell or risking your own life for another.

The realization set in that love really was Finnley Felton, and I had fallen truly, madly, and so deeply in love with him. So much that sometimes it hurt.

He turned and looked at me. In his gaze, I felt his burning passion of want, need, and desire. Our lips touched, but before we got lost in the moment, he pulled away.

"What is love to you?"

"You," I whispered, and a smile covered his face.

"You'll be the end of me, Miss Downs. You will be the fucking end of me."

"You were the beginning of me, Mr. Felton."

Finnley closed his eyes and inhaled deeply. I wrapped my arms around his waist making sure to not touch his wounds. Then he kissed my forehead and grabbed my hands. I stared into his eyes, waiting patiently for him to speak.

"I'm in love with you and can't live without you. I need you to know that I love you, Jennifer Downs. I didn't know if I would be able to tell you. I would have never been able to live with myself if something would have happened to you. I love you."

Those three words: the ones that could move mountains. The ones that could make a heart stop beating or make another one quicken. Those three words left me speechless, but somehow I found words.

"You make me feel things I've never felt before. I feel like I've loved you forever. Finnley Felton, I love you so much that my words feel insufficient. I can't even explain it."

He smiled, interlocked his fingers with mine, and kissed me. The passion swirled between us, and I wanted nothing more than that. When we finally pulled away from each other, Finnley laughed. He was giddy, and I loved seeing him that way, happy and in love.

"Mr. Felton, sometimes you take my breath away."

"Good." He ran his fingers through my hair and before I turned to walk away, Finnley took his time, but dropped down to one knee. He winced and pulled a black box from his pocket, prying it open with shaky hands. I saw nothing but silver and shining diamonds. I covered my mouth in shock.