I cover my face with my hands. How can I even look at him? How can he look at me? I hid his son from him! Oh my God!
“Hey, I told you to never hide that beautiful face. Especially from me.”
He reaches up, his rough hand clasping my wrists and pulling them down.
“How can you look at me after what I did?”
His eyes were always so expressive, and all I see is his love, his patience, his strength. His mask is gone now. This man is ready to hold me up yet again, and I cannot fathom why.
“What you did? How you were manipulated? How you did the one thing you could think of to protect our son? Sacrificing your own happiness for his? How could I look at a woman like that? With absolute fucking awe. That's how.”
What?
“I…I never should have believed that letter, Ev.”
He puts his forehead to mine, and I close my eyes, soaking him in.
“Yeah, maybe not. Maybe if you were in a healthy state of mind, you wouldn’t have. Maybe if you had been raised to see your worth, you wouldn’t have. Maybe if you weren’t living in a constant state of fight or flight, you wouldn’t have. Maybe if every time you fought, you weren't abused, you would have fought for us. But you didn’t. You made the best decision you could have made with the life you were given. And I don’t blame you for choosing to run, Leo.”
He pulls back and looks me directly in the eyes again. His honesty, his understanding hits me in the chest. I don’t deserve his forgiveness.
“I spent eight years hating you for what I thought you did.” I grab his face, hoping and praying that with my honesty, we can move forward.
“No, you didn’t. If you hated me, you wouldn’t have told Rune about me.”
He knows?
“How do you—”
“Rune told me that you had given him pieces of me throughout his life. Telling him about me. Even when you thought you hated me, you still loved me enough to share me with him, and I am so fucking grateful for that, Leo. Rune knows who I am because of you. That’s so fucking brave, pretty bird.”
“I think I needed him to love you like I did—like I do.” I kiss the tip of his nose. My tears have dried to my face. God, I probably looklike a wet raccoon with mascara and tears running down my face, but I don’t care.
“Where do we go from here?” There is a spark of hope in my chest that wherever we go, we will do it together.
“I think it’s time for breakfast. I’ll cook, you make the coffee?” He winks, and those dimples—fuck, those dimples come out, and I kiss each one.
He hops off the bed, still just in his jeans. Holy mother of muscles. He is ripped. He was always fit, being an athlete and all, but now?
I didn’t think it was possible to be so sculpted. His porcelain skin is taut over each ab. I can see each muscle in his back move. This man is giving Thor a run for his money, and me? Well, I could possibly compete with an Oompa Loompa.
He leans down and picks his shirt up off the floor, lifting it up and over his head, and it falls smoothly down his back and settles on his hips.
I hate shirts.
Really. They suck.
He looks back at me. The arrogant look on his face tells me he knows exactly what I am drooling all over my pillow for. “You coming?”
“Yes. Yes, I am.”
He walks back over to the bed and leans over me, caging me between his large arms, his veins popping out in all the right places. Shit.
“I meant to breakfast, not in your panties, pretty bird.” His tone is laced with seduction, and I need to evacuate before I never find the self-confidence to show my body in front of him again.
“Yup. Nope. Fuck.” I swallow and try to regain my composure.Words. Use them in a cohesive sentence, Leo.
“I am coming to breakfast, but you need to leave because you are too perfect to see me naked.”
