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“Then give me a reason to stay.”
“It’s not that easy.” She stepped closer to him, drawn to him inexorably.
He dropped the shutter and she saw the naked emotion in his eyes. “Yes, it is, mo chroi. Loving you is the easiest thing I’ve ever done.”
She felt the words like a knife in her guts. “I wish you wouldn’t say such things to me.”
“Why not?”
“Because I don’t deserve them.” Georgie closed her eyes, holding back the hot, stinging tears, when he reached out and cupped her cheek in his hand. She covered his hand with her own, holding it there briefly before stepping back.
“Tell me what’s going on.” His tone was filled with tenderness now. It was her undoing.
She could tell him this. Because she had always been able to tell him her thoughts and feelings. Show him her fears. And he had always made her feel better. Not this time, of course. He couldn’t fix this. But at least he could leave Blessed Inlet knowing why she’d done what she’d done. “I love you.” She saw the flare of emotion in his eyes and held her hand up hastily, taking another step back when he moved towards her. “But I can’t…”
He stepped back as well, leaning against the kitchen counter, folding his arms across his chest, watching her calmly. “Why can’t you?”
“Because…If I stay with you now,” she twisted her hands together. “If I stay with you now, I’ll grow too used to it. To loving you. I’ll lean on you too much. Then when you go, I’ll fall over.” She swallowed hard. “And…and I’ll never be able to get back up again,” she whispered brokenly. Her confession floated in the air between them for an endless moment.
“I love you, Georgie. I love you so much my heart could explode with it. Why would I go?”
Georgie looked away, down at her feet. “Because you’ll get sick of me.”
Ryan blew out an explosive breath. “What fuckery is this?”
CHAPTER29
Georgie’s gaze flew to his face. There was a storm of emotion in his eyes. Anger appeared uppermost at that moment.
Nothing less than the full, unvarnished truth would do for him now. Georgie knew it. “Ryan, I love you too much to ask you to stay with me, to have to look at me every day for the rest of your life.”
He stared at her then. Just stood there staring at her, his blue eyes blazing. Then he said, “Let me get this straight. You told me you don’t love me, you lied to me, you broke my heart, to save me the horror of…of living with your scars?”
Georgie nodded wordlessly.
“And you thought that I would get sick of living with them and leave you?”
She nodded again.
“Jesus Christ and all the saints, Georgie. If I didn’t love you as much as I do, I’d strangle you right about now.” He pushed away from the bench, went to the bed and picked up a package, wrapped in thick, brown paper. Leaning it against the wall on the kitchen counter, he turned to Georgie. “This is your birthday present.”
“I don’t—”
“Open it.”
There was no resisting the command in his voice. Georgie moved forward, reached for the package with shaking fingers. Pulling the paper carefully aside to reveal the gift, she went completely still. Stood frozen as emotion after emotion swamped her. It was a portrait of her. Ryan had painted her. Standing in the fall of sunlight from a window, on thick red carpet, next to a four-poster bed. She clutched a bedsheet to her front as she looked back over her shoulder, a mysterious smile curving her lips. It seemed so lifelike that she could imagine the figure in the painting moving. But what hit Georgie hard, what held her absolutely spellbound as she gazed at her own image, was her scars. Ryan had painted them in minute detail in a delicate, shimmering gold paint. There was no possible way she could convince herself that he didn’t see them. He saw every one of them. She couldn’t stop staring at the painting. Finally, she turned to look at Ryan. Tried to find the words to articulate her feelings. “Is this…” She gestured to the painting. Tears welled in her eyes. “Is this how you see me?”
“Yes.”
“Really?” A single tear slid down her cheek.
“Yes.”
She turned back to look at it again. Her heart swelled. “It’s beautiful.”
“Yes.”
“I look…beautiful.”
