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“You’re very opinionated for a man who hasn’t been home for even five minutes.”

“I’ve had a lot of time to think about what I’d do when I got my hands on you again.”

His fingers tightened gently in my hair as his mouth moved to the side of my throat.

I tipped my head, giving him more room.

“That sounds promising.”

“It is.”

He kissed his way down to my exposed shoulder.

I was seriously considering whether dinner could survive when the holstered pistol pressed against my thigh again.

Lachlan noticed at the same time.

“Hold that thought.”

He stepped back, and I sighed.

His mouth twitched as he reached beneath his jacket. He released the holster, removed the gun, checked it, then set both on the side table in the living room. He shrugged out of his suit jacket and draped it over the back of a chair before unfastening his cuffs, tossing the links on the table, and rolling the sleeves neatly to his forearms.

Well, fuck me. Without the jacket and with his sleeves rolled to his forearms, he no longer looked like he’d just stepped out of a Boston meeting. He looked ready to get down to business, and I sincerely hoped that business was me.

He returned and stepped between my knees, his hands settling on my thighs. His attention moved slowly around the kitchen, taking in the candles, the table set for two, and the dinner waiting for us.

“You did all this?”

“Most of it successfully.”

“Most?”

“The first bread pudding died honorably yesterday.”

His mouth curved.

“I asked Scarlett what your favorite meal was, and she recruited Lucian for the answer.”

“That traitor.”

“He was extremely useful.”

Lachlan’s attention moved over everything I’d done for him one more time. His hands tightened lightly on my thighs, then eased as he took another second before speaking.

“You made the kind of dinner my mam used to make.”

“That was the idea.”

I smiled and reached for his shirt, running my fingers along the crisp edge of the open collar.

“Welcome home.”

“I’m home, Mouse, but it isn’t because I’m standing in this penthouse.”

Lachlan’s hands left my thighs and came up to cup my face. He kissed me, then drew back only far enough to speak.

“I’m home because I’m back with you. You’re home to me. You’re the woman I want to come back to at the end of every day and wake up beside every morning. I love you, Isabella. You’re mine to love, mine to protect, mine to make happy.”