“Please say something,” he blurted out.

Smooth, Cole. Good job on the no begging thing.

She swallowed and dropped her eyes to his chin. “Just trying to think of the best way to tell you that I broke my promise a long time ago. You’re really an impossible man not to fall in love with.”

Cole had the strangest urge to pump his fist in triumph, but instead he settled for pulling her closer. “Is that so?”

She smiled and went on her toes as she kissed his chin. “It is. And I love you.”

He bent and kissed her cheekbones. “Say it again.”

“No way, you say it again.”

“Not until you—”

“Here’s an idea,” came a male voice from the doorway. “Say it at the same time. Then you both win.”

Cole glanced up to see Lincoln leaning in the doorway drinking a smoothie. The haunted look was gone from Lincoln’s face, and now he wore a shit-eating grin.

“Don’t you knock?” Cole asked.

“I don’t know, Jake, do we knock?” Lincoln said, raising his voice and looking to his left. “I’m pretty sure we don’t.”

Jake Malone came into the doorway, saw Penelope in Cole’s arms, and grinned. “You have no idea how long I’ve waited for this moment, Sharpe. All the shit you’ve been giving me for the past year, and—”

Cassidy appeared in the doorway, his cool green eyes betraying nothing, but there may have been just the slightest upward tilt of his lips.

He leaned forward, his hand finding the doorknob of Penelope’s office door. “Sorry about my Relationships and Travel editors here,” Cassidy said. “I’ll just give you a moment of privacy…”

“Hold up,” Cole said before Cassidy could close the door. “I have a bone to pick with you, boss. You deliberately let me think—”

“Never happened,” Cassidy called, shutting the door with a sharp snap.

It opened a half second later, and Cassidy poked his head in the door.

“You guys do remember we have a staff meeting in ten?”

Cole was already kissing Penelope, and waved a hand over her head. Get out.

The door closed again, and Cole pulled Penelope closer, deepening the kiss. If he only had ten minutes, he was going to make every damn one count.

Penelope, however, had other ideas, because she shoved him back after two minutes.

“Wait. Does this mean I don’t get to go to the game with Todd tonight?”

“You have other plans,” Cole said, running his hands over her, just because he could.

“What am I supposed to tell him? I already said I was available.”

“Tell him there’s been a change of plans and you’ll be spending the night naked, at my place.”

“What if he asks to go later this week?”

“You’re busy then too.”

“Next week?” she asked, her voice just slightly exasperated.

He smiled against her neck. “Let me make this really clear. You’re going to busy all of the nights. Forever. With me.”

She pulled back. “That sounds to me like commitment, Mr. Sharpe.”

He grinned. “It does, doesn’t it?”

“Okay, but I’m thinking I should get this one in writing. You’re obviously terrible at keeping your promises, and—”

Cole cut her off with a kiss. Penelope didn’t know it yet, but he was pretty damn sure she’d be getting his promise in the form of something shiny and sparkly.

Say, along the lines of a diamond ring…

Epilogue

“Oh my gosh. Oh my gosh, it’s him.” Penelope thumped her fist against Cole’s biceps in excitement. “Do I look okay? Do you have any lipstick?”

Cole stared at her. “Are you kidding me right now with this?”

She barely heard him. She stood on her toes, peering around the crowd of reporters to get a better look. “Dang, I wish I were taller. Can I sit on your shoulders?”

“If you think for one second I’m going to hoist you onto my shoulders so that you can ogle another man—”

“Not just any other man, though,” she said. “Jackson Burke. Only, like, the greatest quarterback in the history of quarterbacks.”

“Former quarterback,” Cole corrected under his breath.

They were both quiet for a moment, two avid sports fans paying a moment of silence to the end of a legend.

Five days ago, Cole and Penelope had flown in for the Redhawks’ training camp. It was a sports editor’s dream. A chance to interview players, coaches, see who was looking good, who’d had a few too many beers in the off-season…

The moment they’d stepped off the plane, both of their phones had exploded in a barrage of texts, emails, and tweets.

Jackson Burke, the Texas Redhawks quarterback and four-time Super Bowl winner, had been involved in a multicar accident on the way to a training game.

Nobody from the Redhawks had confirmed the extent of his injury, but rumors were flying that his football career was over.

Further rumors were circulating that he’d had a woman, not his wife, in the car with him.

It was a toss-up which was getting more press—the demise of his professional life or the implosion of his personal one. Especially given the swirling rumors of his womanizing ways in recent months.

The crowd parted enough that Penelope could get her first glimpse of Jackson, and her heart sank as she realized that the rumors likely held some truth.