“No,” he shouted.
“I mean it,” she whispered.
“No.” He stepped closer to her, but didn’t touch her yet. “You do not get to decide that for both of us.”
Emotion climbed higher in her chest. “You don’t understand,” she choked.
“Then explain it to me,” he insisted.
Dani laughed shakily. “People are already talking.”
“I don’t care,” he said.
“But I do!” Her voice cracked. “Because they’re saying awful things about you.” Jonnas went quiet—too quiet.
Then he asked softly, “And what are they saying about you?” The question stole the air from her lungs because she hadn’t even let herself think about that part yet. People were going to talk about the young nurse who slept with the powerful hospital administrator and got herself pregnant after one night. Humiliation clawed through her chest viciously.
Dani folded her arms tightly around herself. “It doesn’t matter,” she lied.
“It matters to me,” he insisted. The sincerity in his voice nearly undid her. Jonnas reached for her carefully, then stopped halfway. Giving her a choice. He was always giving her choices, and that thought somehow made the tears finally spill over.
“I can’t be the reason your life falls apart,” she whispered.
Something fierce moved across his face instantly. “Baby girl.” His voice softened painfully. “Look at me.” She did automatically, and the second their eyes met, she saw everything. This mattered to him, and she knew that she mattered to him. That part only made this harder.
“You think I care more about my reputation than you?” he asked quietly.
“You should,” she insisted. A harsh laugh escaped him then, and God, he sounded wrecked.
“You really still don’t understand how gone I am for you,” he breathed. Her heart stuttered as Jonnas stepped closer, finally, both hands gently framing her face.
“I would walk away from this hospital tomorrow before I walked away from you,” he whispered.
The words slammed into her chest so hard they hurt. “No,” she whispered instantly. “Don’t say that.”
“It’s true,” he said.
“You don’t mean that,” she insisted.
His eyes darkened. “Dani, I need you to listen very carefully to me right now.” His thumbs brushed beneath her tears gently. “You are not a mistake I regret. You are not some scandal I need to clean up.” His voice roughened further. “You are the woman carrying my child, and I am in love with you.”
The entire world felt like it had stopped, and all Dani could do was stand there, staring at him helplessly. She’d suspected that he felt that way about her. God, she’d hoped, but hearing it out loud destroyed every wall she had left.
Tears spilled down her face. “Oh no,” she whispered shakily.
Jonnas actually laughed softly through his own frustration. “That’s your response?”
“You picked literally the worst possible moment to say that,” she whispered.
His forehead dropped lightly against hers. “Probably.”
Emotion swelled so big inside her chest it almost hurt to breathe around it. “I’m scared,” she admitted finally.
“I know,” he whispered.
“No.” Her voice cracked. “I’m scared I’ll ruin your life.”
Jonnas pulled back just enough to look her directly in the eyes. “Dani.” His voice turned firm again. “You are not going to ruin my life. You and our baby are my whole life now, not this hospital.” The certainty in his tone shattered her completely, because no one had ever said that to her before—not once in her entire life. Standing there in that stairwell with the hospital threatening to tear them apart, Dani realized the most terrifying thing of all—she loved him too.