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He reached out, pulling her against him, sheltering her against his own body.
“You’re not leaving?”
“I’m not leaving.” He kissed her forehead, her cheek. His lips brushed over hers, as soft as a summer breeze, before he stared into her eyes. “I’m dying without you, Risa. I can’t do this any longer.” He swallowed tightly. “I wanted to protect you, love. From myself. From my past.” He gave his head a hard shake. “Walking away destroyed me, Risa. I was more a dead man then than I ever have been.”
Her lips parted on a gasp as emotion surged inside her.
“You love me? You’re not leaving?” She couldn’t believe he was back, that she was in his arms, that he loved her.
She touched his lips, her fingers trembling, heart racing.
“My heart was with you.” A broken sob left her lips as she took his hand and slid it to her stomach. “Both our hearts were with you.”
Micah felt a fist slam into his chest.
His eyes went from where his hand lay against her stomach and back to her gaze. Emotion swelled in his throat until he was certain he would choke from it.
“Risa?”
“Both of us, Micah,” she whispered. “I didn’t know. The birth control wasn’t very strong.”
He saw the uncertainty that filled her expression. The tinge of fear. He was shaking. He could feel himself shaking from the inside out.
“A baby?” He had to swallow past the need, the hunger rising inside him now. “You’re pregnant?”
Her lips trembled and the sight of it tore through him.
He shook his head. He was swamped with feeling. Overwhelmed by it.
“Risa.” His voice sounded broken even to him. “Sweet Risa.”
He couldn’t speak. He moved lower, his hand caressing her stomach before his head lowered and his lips brushed across the satiny skin.
His hand tightened on her hip as he fought to contain the emotions rising inside him like a wild wind across the desert. Blistering hot, surging through him with a force he couldn’t contain.
“I am yours,” he whispered. “I live to hold you, Risa. I breathe to touch you.”
He was shaking, almost shuddering as his head lifted and he stared back into her tear-drenched eyes. “I love you.”
“I love you, Micah.” Tears fell from her eyes. “Oh God, Micah. I love you.”
She was in his arms. He held her too tightly and he knew it. He couldn’t help it. He rocked her. He let her sob against his chest and had to battle the tears in his eyes.
He was a Maverick. An unknown force, a man who adjusted the rules of his world as he moved through it. Until Risa.
She re-created his world. She re-created him.
No longer was he a dead man. He was a living, breathing extension of every emotion that one small woman could instill within a man.
He was her lover. The father of her child. He would be her husband.
“Me’achshav ve’ad hanetzach,” he whispered. “From now until eternity, Risa. I will love you forever.”
