Page 212 of Love Unwritten

“I thought as much.”

“Why would she agree to this?” He sounds so damn confused.

“No one knows.”

“Not even Willow?” he asks.

“No.”

“And Lorenzo?”

“He doesn’t know either.”

He grunts something to himself before speaking again. “So Lily just agreed out of the blue to become his fake fiancée?”

“Yes.”

He drops back with a sigh. “I don’t like this.”

I cover his hands holding the reins with mine. “Lorenzo isn’t a bad guy.” Manipulative and self-serving, yes, but he did help Rafael with Darius and protected plenty of future women from suffering like I did, so I have a soft spot for him.

“Yeah, but that doesn’t mean I want him engaged to someone who is like a sister to me.”

I sigh. “She won’t know that you know.”

“I’ll make sure she doesn’t, but if I sense something is off—”

“Then you and I will kick his ass.”

He wraps an arm around my waist and pulls me tighter against him. “I appreciate you trusting me.”

“I couldn’t not tell you.”

He shakes his head. “That’s not true. You could’ve stayed quiet, and I wouldn’t have known.”

“That wasn’t an option.”

He stiffens behind me. “Why?”

“Because I don’t want to keep secrets from you.”

He turns my head and kisses any lingering worries away until I’m only thinking about him and how I’m helplessly falling in love with a man who could end up breaking my heart one day. Hopefully, he chooses to protect it instead, but it doesn’t matter.

I’d willingly choose to repeat every single moment, so long as it may end with me spending forever in his arms.

CHAPTER FIFTY-SIX

Ellie

Rafael and I go on two more dates within the next seven days—neither of which has ended with us doing anything more than kiss. I appreciate him taking things slow, but everyone has a breaking point, and mine officially happened a few hours ago after Rafael had me help him rescue a litter of kittens that were left abandoned on the side of the road.

He told me about his days saving Lake Wisteria stray cats, but seeing him in action is truly something else. I can tell he has experience with this kind of thing, because as soon as we found the cardboard box, he knew exactly what to do.

Thanks to Rafael’s unlimited resources, we had the cats checked by a vet and cleared for the barn within an hour, which is impressive given the fact that the animal clinic wasn’t even open at the time we found them.

“What?” He looks up from the gray kitten he is bottle-feeding. We are both sitting inside the stall, surrounded by blankets and the cutest kittens, but I only see him.

I lean back. “You may be the hottest man to ever exist.”