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His eyes were so blue it almost hurt to look at them. He was willing her to believe him—she could see that. But something was holding her back. Fear.
All she could see in her mind’s eye was how her father had slowly diminished more and more as the years had passed and it had become less and less likely that Lia’s mother would ever return. And now someone was standing in front of her, asking for her heart...and she was filled with terror.
She backed away, panic galvanising her. Emotion constricted her voice. ‘I can’t...do this.’
She whirled around, away from that too penetrating gaze, and made it to the door. She opened it just as her vision started to blur, but then it was slammed shut again and Ben was behind her, his hands above her head. Capturing her.
She turned around and looked up. He was too close. ‘Let me go.’
He shook his head, looking fierce. ‘Never.’
‘I don’t trust you—how can I?’ Her heart was pumping nearly out of her chest.
Ben shook his head, caging her in. ‘It’s not me you don’t trust—it’s yourself. Because you’re too afraid to reach out and grab what you’ve always denied yourself: the chance of the happiness you deserve. Just because your father denied it to himself his whole life, it doesn’t mean you have to.’
His words struck deep into the very heart of her and Lia lashed out defensively. ‘Since when did you become a psychologist?’
Ben’s mouth quirked. ‘Since a beautiful, bright, brave woman stalked away from our first date and turned my world upside down and inside out, showing me that everything I thought was important wasn’t.’
Lia felt tears threaten. ‘You turned my world upside down and inside out.’
Ben’s expression changed. Became serious. ‘I know,’ he said. ‘Because from the moment I saw you I wanted you more than anything I’ve ever wanted before. Yes, I knew who you were, and, yes, I had an agenda. But in all honesty they were the last things on my mind. I had to keep reminding myself of my objective; that’s why I let you go. I realised how far off course I’d come. I’d lost track of everything that I’d believed was important.’
His mouth tightened.
‘When you walked away I told myself the last thing I needed was a wife who actually made me feel anything. I told you the truth when I told you I wanted you from first sight...as soon as I saw your photo I was done for. The fact that you were who you were...that made it justifiable for me to go after you. I will do whatever it takes to make you believe me, Lia. I will sign over Carter Construction to you, to your favourite charity, to Santa Claus...whoever you want. Trust me on this. My solicitor is just down the hall. Say the word and I’ll have contracts drawn up. And I will never ask you to marry me if you’re afraid that’s still my endgame. If you can tell me that you truly don’t want this, that you don’t feel anything for me, then I’ll let you go and you’ll never hear from me again.’
Lia looked up into those blue eyes that had sent shockwaves through her as soon as she’d seen them. And all she could see was blazing determination, truth and...her heart hitched...love. This man was ready to destroy everything he’d built up—for her. And he hadn’t lied about wanting her from the moment he’d seen her photo.
But there was still something holding her back.
Her voice was little more than a whisper. ‘But how can I trust that you won’t leave eventually? Or that you won’t hurt me?’
Lia had literally nowhere to hide. She was laid bare, exposing her deepest fears.
Ben looked so fierce for a second that she sucked in a breath.
‘I would never leave you. Ever. You have just as much power to hurt me—more.’
Lia felt something fierce rush through her at the thought of this man being hurt...of leaving him behind. ‘I could never hurt you.’
Some expression crossed Ben’s face, something almost like satisfaction, and then he said, ‘Not everyone is like our parents, Lia. Some people do find happiness. Security. Do you love me?’
Without an atom left in her body capable of keeping up her high walls of defence, Lia just nodded.
‘Well, then,’ Ben said softly, his eyes turning suspiciously shiny, ‘we’re already different to them. Because I love you too, and I pledge here and now to do everything in my power to make you happy for as long as we live.’
Lia absorbed that.
And then Ben said, ‘They didn’t love each other, Lia, not really. Not your parents, nor my parents. And that’s where they failed.’
She looked at him and her chest expanded. Was he right? Could things really be different for them because they loved each other? Could it really be that simple?
But she already knew the answer, deep in her core, because it was spreading outwards and infusing her whole body with a lightness she’d never felt before. It could be that simple...and that hard...because loving Benjamin Carter was the scariest thing she’d ever done in her life. And the easiest.
And so she did the only thing she could. She reached up and pulled Ben’s face down to hers and kissed him, until all the doubts and fears had fled and there was only love left behind.
* * *
