“And to think you were ready to toss me to the streets when we met.” She lifted her lips in a lazy smirk, and Ben grinned.
“I have been wrong once or twice.” He kissed her chin, her eyelids, but a realization stopped him short. “I tried to push you away like your family did, didn’t I?”
Rose stiffened and bit her lower lip. “It wasn’t the same. You didn’t know me. You never claimed to care for me, then set me aside. Now… now I hope you wouldn’t do the same.”
An urgency burned in his chest, as though something attempted to break free and reach for her. “I never would, Rose. I swear it.”
They kissed until his chest loosened, until the fear of losing her faded against the intensity of his desire for her, lust swimming with unguarded love through his veins.
As he resumed kissing a path down her breast, she stopped him, catching his cheek in her palm. “I wasn’t truthful with you, the first time we…” She trailed off, giving him a half smile.
Ben froze, the panic creeping back into his chest. “About what?”
“I told you I wouldn’t try to steal your heart away.” She hesitated. “But I wanted to, and I don’t deserve it, I don’t deserve you, but… I gave you my heart instead.”
“Rose,” he whispered, the fluttering in his chest back in force. “You haven’t stolen something I’ve freely given.”
She laughed, a tearful, glorious sound that made his soul sing. “You guarded it like that… what was the story about the goats and the bridge?”
He laughed now, too. He had forgotten how much he enjoyed it. “The billy goats gruff.”
“That’s it,” she said, patting his cheek. “You’re my dear, grumpy troll guarding the bridge.”
Ben buried his face in her neck and blew air, resulting in an offensive sound that made Rose giggle and squirm. “Then you must be the goat.”
“Three of them, if we’re being particular.”
He sat up and raised a sardonic brow. “I have you spread out naked below me and we’re talking about goats.”
“And trolls.”
“You’re never dull, my Rosie.” He swung his leg over her until he had her bracketed beneath his body. “But we need to stop talking about barnyard animals if I’m going to take care of you like you deserve.”
Her green eyes widened, her pupils dark. “And what would taking care of me entail?”
Stay and I will take care of you for the rest of my life. “Why don’t I show you?”
Ben cherished her, worshiped her, attempted to show with his body just how much she meant to him. Each pass of his tongue and nip of his teeth was a gift presented to his queen, small tokens of his gratitude for all she had given him. She argued she didn’t have the right to claim his heart, but he wanted more from her than she would ever offer. He wanted her future to be withhim, to father her children and share her bed, wherever it may be. The notion felt so right that he shuddered, his forehead pressed to her breastbone.
Rose touched his cheek. “Ben, are you—”
He caught her question with his lips. “This is perfect, Rosie,” he whispered.
Nearly perfect. As perfect as he could have. Perfection would be standing by her side for eternity, but he didn’t know if she wanted the same thing he did and was too cowardly to ask. Too afraid this would end.
He pressed his lips to the side of her neck, tasted sweat and soap, the unmistakable scent ofRose. She was everything and everywhere, yet ephemeral. A dream he would only hold in broken memories once she left. Because he couldn’t have her, and he knew it. He would never be enough for her. But he would not let regret and fear keep him from her, not again.
“Did you mean what you said?” she asked as her fingers threaded through his hair. “About being mine?”
Had she wanted to hear it, or had he frightened her? But he wouldn’t lie to her. After everything, he could be brave. “I did, and I do.”
She snuggled even tighter against him, the heat of her body soothing every part of him. “I think I’ve been yours all along.”
Chapter 28
Benscannedthelistof names in front of him and shook his head. “This isn’t helpful at all.”
“Perhaps cookies will make it better.” Abby shoved some chocolate crumbly concoction into his hand and a good third of it dropped on the list, making it even more illegible.
