She stepped close to him. “I would never betray you,” she whispered on a soft breath. “You should know that. I love you.”
Christian stared into her eyes, troubled yet hopeful. “How can you love me after I left you?”
“Because you came back.” She studied him with confidence. “Because there has never been a man that I’ve felt this way about. Ever.”
He brushed a lock of her hair behind her ear. His eyebrows rose. “I’m glad to hear that. You already know how I feel about you.”
“Angry? Jealous? Annoyed?”
Christian chuckled. “Yes. To all of those. But so much more. I don’t have to tell you how stunningly beautiful you are. But what I don’t think others, including your family, tell you is how kind and intelligent you are. I mean, who else could have put together a fake book?”
She bowed her head with a grin.
“And you devised that plot alone.” He shook his head in wonder. “It wouldn’t have been the plan I would have created.”
She embraced him with one arm. “Why did you return? What changed your mind?”
He caught her in his arms. “It was the stars,” he admitted. “Theyaregems.”
She looked into his eyes, and his heart blossomed with love. Her eyes twinkled like the stars.
“I love you, Will. I do. But we have to work on communication…”
“I’m sorry,” she repeated. “I was going to tell you, but I didn’t want to admit that I was working with your brother.”
“You never have to be embarrassed about anything with me.” He brushed her lips with a tender kiss. “I swear I will never leave you again.”
She smiled. “You’d better not.”
The kiss of forgiveness deepened, and he squeezed her. When she groaned, he retreated. “You’re hurt.”
“It’s my shoulder. When I fell out of the window, I landed wrong.”
“How many times did we practice a rolling fall?” he inquired, stepping back to inspect her arm.
“It was difficult to manage with my hands bound.”
The admission was like a cut to his heart. If he had been there, she would not have been injured. He gently touched her shoulder, and she moaned. She pressed it stiffly at her side. “Can you move it?”
“I’d rather not.”
He tucked the book away in the saddlebag. “Can you ride?”
“I don’t know.”
He patted the horse. “Wait here, and I will get your horse. I want to inspect your shoulder.” He turned toward the inn. He should never have left her. But he was proud that she had put up a fight, proud of her but furious with his brother.
“Get my sword too,” she called. “It’s on a table in the main room.”
He nodded to her, observing the way she cradled her arm against her side as if to protect it. It angered him they had harmed her.
He glared at Verm’s body as he passed. He was glad Verm was dead. Anyone that dared lay a hand on Willow would meet the same fate.
“Take back my payment!” Willow advised. “On his belt.”
Christian stopped to slice off the coin pouch and tie it to his own belt. He wiped the blood from his blade on Verm’s tunic and sheathed it.
Christian opened the door to the inn and paused upon seeing Simon and his soldier with the black eye seated at a table. Christian’s gaze swept the room until he spotted Willow’s belt and sheathed sword atop another table. His eyes narrowed as he glowered at Simon. He would kill his brother, too, to keep Willow safe.
Perhaps his brother sensed a difference in Christian because Simon leaned back in his chair and crossed his arms.
Christian traversed the room and seized Willow’s sword. He spun and departed without another look at his brother. He no longer considered himself in the Sterling family. His family was with Willow. It was where he had belonged all along.
