Page 46 of Hunted in Hope Town

She wanted to be together. She loved him. And a life like she’d been living the past two years was dull. A life with him at the edges was empty, even if she filled it in other ways. It was never enough. It was never this.

He had always been her other half. And she never would have given up on him. Maybe it was wishful thinking to believe he felt the same, but he was still here. After two years of her not remembering, he’d never left. Never pushed. Never hurt.

But he touched her now, and she touched him. They moved to the bedroom, dreamy and soft, like they were both too scared to move faster, feel the desperation ratcheting up.

She’d never be able to imagine what it was like for him. To be so close and at arm’s length, but she could feel an echo of that pain when they came together, when they shuddered in each other’s arms.

He whispered her name like it was a prayer, and she felt like she’d finally come home after so long away.

They lay there, wrapped up in each other, neither speaking. But after a while, she could feel him begin to tense. And she knew him, didn’t she?

“Don’t feel guilty.”

He toyed with the ends of her hair. “Easier said than done,” he muttered.

She turned in his arms, leveraged up on her elbow so she could study his face. “Maybe, but we lost too much time to play victims now. We’re going to make the best of what we have. Because we didn’t before. And now we know better.”

His hazel eyes met hers. Studied her very seriously. “I love you. I think that was the hardest part. Not saying it. All this time.”

Her eyes filled again, but she didn’t want to keep crying all over him, so she blinked them back as best she could. “Maybe it was lost these past two years, but I know. When I remembered, I never thought you didn’t.” But he had thought she didn’t. Or at least, that she’d been done.

Maybe, if she was honest with herself, she could admit that even though she never would have given up on their marriage, she had definitely been at a low point where she hadn’t known how to reach him.

It had felt dire when he’d walked out of that house to take his last assignment. It had felt like an end. Even if she wasn’t going to accept it as one. And he needed to know that part.

“I was never giving up on us, Ellis. I love you. Even if it was lost under my brain injury these past two years, it doesn’t erase it.”

She wasn’t sure he believed her, but she’d work to make sure he got there. She traced his hairline, reveling in touching him again. In being together again. In everything she could remember, feel, believe. It was big and unwieldy, really, all this hope for something they’d lost.

But they had to make it through this threat first—a threat that had worked to keep them apart for the past two years.

“So, we’ll work together to figure out who wants to hurt us knowing that neither of us is going anywhere, even when we’re both safe. I’m promising you that.”

“Kirsten, you might feel differently. You might—”

“We made vows,” she interrupted firmly. “I made a vow to you. Whatever we have to work through, we will. Beginning and end of story.”

His mouth curved ever so slightly, and he pushed a strand of hair behind her ear. “I never want you to feel beholden to me.”

Her heart ached. Didn’t he understand why he was always so worried about beholden? He’d never felt love from his stepfather, only that duty. Always so cautious, so afraid to believe someone else could feel what he did.

And she’d never said that to him, because she was always afraid he’d get mad or withdrawn or silent.

“I’m not Jason, Ellis. You don’t have to be afraid of me treating you like nothing more than a duty to suffer through.”

He got stiff and tense—oh so familiar. “I’m not afraid—”

“You are,” she said firmly, not letting the bluster keep her quiet. Not letting the tension freak her out.

This man had stayed with her through what could only be described as the worst. And she had survived being thrown off of a balcony. She was done being afraid.

She was living in strength now. “I know fear is touchy for you, but it’s true.”

She didn’t enjoy the look of shocked hurt on his face, but this was something that had to be done. She remembered all her regrets now. She wasn’t going to fall back into old bad habits born of her own issues.

“And I was afraid you’d abandon me like my parents did. We’re not so deep or complex as I think either of us would like to believe. The hard part is acknowledging it, admitting it, and figuring out what to do about it. And I am going to stop being afraid that you’ll leave me like they did.” She pressed her mouth to his. “You didn’t leave me when I didn’t remember. You won’t leave me now. I didn’t give up on you when you left. I won’t now, no matter what I remember.”

She could tell he wasn’t fully on board with this, but she also knew he was considering what she was saying. Even if he’d still knee-jerk refuse fear, he was going to think about it.