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“Oh, sorry, I didn’t know.” He cleared his throat, sitting on the bed and pulling his shoes off. “I saw the notes you left me?”
“Oh…” with her heart pounding in her ears, Lexi blushed remembering stuffing the two-inch hearts with notes, memories, and quotes on them.
“Do you remember all the things you wrote?”
Every last smudged ‘I love you’. “Most of them I’m sure.”
“One said you had a secret to tell me?”
“A truth. You know almost all of me.”
“I want to know all of you.”
“Okay.” Lexi pressed her lips together and inhaled deeply through her nose. “I’ve a confession…No, truth I think…There’s something I never told you.”
Her words brought him to attention. He straightened his stance and looked down at the woman he’d loved preparing for her to pull the rug out from under his feet and leave him in ruins. “I’m listening.” His tone didn’t betray the secrets of his emotions.
“Sweet peas…” She shifted uncomfortably under his gaze, he resisted the urge to shake the words from her lips. “They were my mom’s favorite.”
Noah shifted in his stance, her words throwing him off balance. Five simple words had never held so much meaning. “You never told me…”
“Because.”
Her pause stretched, inching up his nerves watching her wring her hands together. Noah’s stance changed and he closed the distance between them, placing his hands on her shoulders. “Lex.”
“It’s because it was something so coincidental it felt more than fate. If you believe in that sort of thing.”
“I do, and I have since we met. You know that. What’s this about, Lex?”
“I’m tired of living like this, half a person in half a life.”
“Okay.”
“I bought the stupid Sampson house. The one with the windows and the shared office.” Heart pounding in her throat, she looked at him. “It’s the perfect balance of work and play.” Stunned into silence, his stance didn’t change but the muscles in his arms flexed. “Now that I’m ready, it’s too late, isn’t it? I pulled my head out of my ass too late. Don’t tell me that I fuc—”
He silenced her whirring words with his lips claiming hers. His fingers sunk into her hair, fisting it and pulling her head back so their eyes could meet.
“Noah.”
“You’re stuck with me, sweet pea. You’re my happy ending.”
“Really?” She breathed, her nerves jittered under her skin.
“Really.”
“Noah, I love you. I came to you to fix the outside, and somehow you crawled your way in. No matter how hard I tried to keep you out. You healed the scars inside me, the ones I let nobody see. I–I don’t mean to make it hard to love me.”
“It’s never hard to love you, sweet pea. Every moment of every day, I am amazed that this insanely courageous woman lets me love her the way I do.” He brushed her red hair from her shoulders. “It has been an honor being your safe place. That you trust me with your submission and know that I will handle whatever chaos you lay at my feet.”
She sighed and rested her head against his chest, wrapping her arms around him as he enveloped her. “I never stood a chance, did I?”
“Nope. You were mine the moment I laid eyes on you.”
“Damn you.”
His arms wrapped tighter around her. He soothed her until her cries settled. Noah gently cupped her face and forced her to look him in the eyes. “Listen to me.”
She sniffled, exhaling deeply. She nodded silently, finally surrendering her heart to lead.
