Irresistibly Yours

She pinched his arm playfully. “Cole Sharpe, don’t you dare tease me about this. The woman who distracted you from that Yankees game. It was me?”
His hands found her face as his thumbs gently brushed her lips, his expression tender. “Penelope. It’s always been you.”

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.”

“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.”

Penelope stood perfectly still as her eyes searched his face, not saying a word, her features betraying nothing.
Be patient. Be patient. You’ve treated her horribly, and she’ll need time. You can’t go begging—
“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

He stepped closer. “I’m going to have to break that promise.”
Penelope’s breath caught, and he lifted a hand to her face and pressed forward. “I’ve fallen in love with you, Penelope. Yes, that scares the shit out of me. And yes, it caused me to freak out. But my head’s out of my ass now, and I just, I want…I’m yours, Penelope. If you want me. Irresistibly yours.”
She stared at him, looking stunned, and Cole felt his chest tighten.
He dipped his head for a second, trying to gather his last bit of courage, before he looked up to meet her eyes. Tried again. “I love you. That’s all I’ve got. I love you.”

“You made a promise, Penelope. So did I. This was never meant to get serious, and this is why.”
“By this, you mean the off chance that your brother was going to get hit by a cab while we were at a Yankees game? That’s why you promised you wouldn’t fall in love with me?”
“Mock all you want, but he’s all I have,” Cole said.
“He’s not,” Penelope shot back before she could think better of it. “He is not all you have. You have friends, and colleagues, and me. You have me, Cole. You may not like that I’m here, but that doesn’t change the fact that I came for you, and that I’d do it all over again.”

“Hard to forget a perfect kiss in the gently falling snow.”

“You’re not plain, Pope. And in case I haven’t said it before, you have the most amazing eyes I’ve ever seen.”
She blinked at him. “My eyes?”
He gave a smile that verged on embarrassed. “I know it sounds like a line. But, swear to God, those damn big brown eyes get me every time.”
Penelope had no words to describe how she felt just then. Sometimes happy simply didn’t cut it.

She smiled. “That’s all it takes, huh? A girl who likes bourbon?”
“I’m not shallow, Pen. The girl has to like baseball and bourbon.”
“Well, then, I’m your girl.”
“Yeah, you are,” he said with a quick grin.

“Kiss me back,” he said against her mouth. “Kiss me back, Penelope. Please.”