“Do you want to be my wife, yes or no?” Now he was scaring me. “Of course I want to be your wife, but th—”

“No buts. It’s a yes-or-no question, Taryn.”

I squared my shoulders. “Yes.”

“Yes, what?”

Gah. “Yes, I want to be your wife.”

“Good. Then get over your shit. Got me?”

“Ryan, you know I—”

“Got me?” he yelled louder. “I’m not playing this game anymore, Tar. All this bullshit provides for one hell of a lifestyle so deal with it. I provide. I take care of what’s mine.

And if you even so much as breathe on my wallet to get your card so help me God I will tie your ass up, lock you in a fucking room, and play Guns N’ Roses on endless loop.” I gasped. Now he was fighting dirty. “You wouldn’t . . .”

“Oh no? Try me.”

“You can’t take my cr—”

“Oh no? ‘Welcome to the jungle, baby.’

Over and over again. That what you want?” I rubbed a fingertip over my cracked lip, cringing. “No.”

“Good, now that we have that settled, why don’t you tell me how this other bullshit got started.”

“I woke up?”

He frowned at me.

I sat down on the edge of the bed. “There wasn’t a huge crowd outside when I left the hotel.”

“And?”

“And . . . when I came back there were hundreds. The police wouldn’t let me enter the hotel without proof of stay. I tried to get closer to the entrance and then I accidentally stepped on some girl’s toe.” Ryan stared at my incredulously. “A toe.

This”—he waved his hand up and down—“all started because you accidentally stepped on some girl’s foot?”

I nodded again, hating how ridiculous this all sounded. “I tried to call you but I forgot about having to put in the country code first.” I hoped my sheepish look was enough to indicate how remorseful I was. “I was trying to squeeze past them and it just happened. Some girls recognized me and asked for my autograph and then someone wanted to take pictures and then I stepped on someone’s foot. I tried to apologize but another girl shoved me and I bumped the girl behind me and . . . well, they shoved me and I shoved back.”

This apparently amused him.

“It’s not funny.”

He wiped his hand over his lips. “I’m not laughing. But I’m glad you defended yourself.”

I chose not to reply. Defending myself was my downfall.

“So are you going to explain how I put up with you or should we just throw more shoes around instead?”

I turned back to him and grumbled, “You threw the first shoe.”

He was unruffled. “I did. And you’re avoiding answering me.”

“Okay, fine. You want to know? Your publicist, your manager—hard to hide the fact that they both despise me. The only one who’s nice is Aaron and I suppose it’s only to keep you happy. I know they all think I got pregnant on purpose.”

I tossed the other black stiletto into my open suitcase, gentler this time. “Taryn, the evil little temptress, out to trap you and steal your millions.” I took a deep breath.

“We both know how you got pregnant, sweetheart,” he said softly. “It may have been an accident instead of something we planned for but it certainly wasn’t intentional. And it was a risk we took together. Besides, if I didn’t want to have kids with you someday I would have been wearing condoms from day one.”

That stopped me dead in my tracks. “I’ve always wondered about that, actually.” His brow rose. “About?”

“The unprotected day-one part.” He laughed shyly as if he had his own private joke. His eyes locked on mine. “Tar, I knew that very first day I stumbled into your pub that you were the one. I think I fell in love with you when you were rubbing that shit on my cuts.”

I gasped, shocked by his admission.

Another private thought wisped through him, causing a sly grin to form. “I started to have naughty fantasies about you being the mother of my kids when you were kicking my ass playing pool. By the time we finally hooked up, I honestly didn’t care one way or the other if I knocked you up. Feeling your skin on mine was worth taking the risk. And if getting you pregnant meant that you were tied to me somehow permanently, even better.”

I instantly softened at that. Melted, died, and floated to heaven actually.

He held his arms open, welcoming me. I curled up in his lap and snuggled into his neck, never wanting to let go.