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“Baby, it’s okay,” he whispered at her ear before he placed gentle kisses along her brow. “It’s okay, Kimber. You’re not alone anymore. ”
He had promised he would always be there, and now, when she needed him the most, he was there. He was holding her, his arms sheltering her, his kisses soothing the gaping wound that had grown in her soul.
“Why are you here?” She tried to stem the tears, but they refused to be held at bay.
Jared sighed roughly. “Mother called when you came for the key last night. She was worried about you. ”
Kimberly nodded jerkily. Carolyn had watched her too closely and Kimberly had known there was no hiding the proof of the tear-filled nights she had spent since leaving the farm.
She was raw from the inside out. She couldn’t sleep for dreams of Jared, couldn’t get through the day without his name coming to her lips. Without crying for all she had walked away from.
“I don’t want it,” she finally whispered. “This place. This legacy, Jared. I can’t…I don’t want it. ”
She felt him tense, felt his arms tighten around her.
“Five years isn’t so long…” She heard the pain in his voice, heard all the needs that she felt in his soul.
Raising her head, she lifted her hand and placed her fingers against his lips. He stared back at her silently, though his eyes raged with emotion.
“I won’t ask for promises,” she whispered. “I don’t want them. Yet. But I need this, I need you now. Just like this. ”
His smile, God, she loved his smile, even covered by her fingers as it was.
“I told you,” he growled roughly. “I’ll be here Kimber, whenever, however you need me. That’s not a promise. It’s a fact. ”
He drew her back to his chest, tucking her head beneath his chin as the tears finally eased.
“Just rest, baby,” he said then. “Right here, in my arms. Just let me hold you…”
Night moved on, yet Jared never released her. They spoke in hushed whispers, and he listened in silence as she told him of her childhood, of her lonely years in boarding school.
He laughed with her when she told of the pranks she often pulled on the good sisters who ran the school. He hugged her tight when she related the punishments that she considered a fair trade for the fun she had managed to eke out of those years. And he rocked her tenderly when she related the horrifying event of arriving home within hours of her mother’s death.
Finally, her eyes closed wearily and sleep claimed her. And Jared still held her, watching her tenderly, his heart breaking for the loneliness she had endured even as his soul swore she would never know it again.
Jared drove her home the next morning after arranging for someone to bring her car in behind them. He held her hand through the hour-long drive, allowing her to sit in silence until they pulled into her driveway.
Kimberly stared at the little brick house, realizing that it had been more of a home to her in the past six years than Briar Cliff ever had been.
“Come in with me,” she whispered.
She didn’t want to let him go. She didn’t want to face the loneliness awaiting her.
Jared sighed wearily as he lifted her hand to his lips, placing a gentle, destructive kiss in the center of her palm.
“I don’t have that much control today, baby,” he whispered. “I don’t think either of us do. ”
She turned her head, staring at his exhausted face and seeing the same needs swirling in his gaze that burned in her body.
“I’m not asking for your control, Jared,” she whispered. “I don’t want it…”
He shook his head, stopping her flow of words.
“No, Kimber,” he said tenderly. “I won’t let you make this decision while your emotions are this ragged. Go inside and rest. I’ll see you in a few nights, I promise. ”
She would have argued with him, she would have pressed him for more, and she knew eventually, he would give in. But if he did, he would never be certain that the decision she had made in the deepest part of the night was made with her heart and not with her pain.
She nodded slowly. “I’ll hold you to that. ”
