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He moved then, taking her face between his big, warm palms, his whole body shaking with the force of some deep, powerful emotion. ‘Yes,’ he said fiercely. ‘It matters. It matters more than anything in this entire world.’
His touch was so good. The warmth of it soothed all the broken edges of her soul, making her want to lean into his hands. Give him everything she had.
But he didn’t love her, did he? And he never would. And that wasn’t enough for her any more. It just wasn’t.
‘Why?’ She forced away the tears. ‘Why does it matter to you?’
The street lights glossed his black hair, made his eyes glitter strangely. ‘Because you matter,gatita. You matter to me.’
Her breath caught—everything caught. ‘What?’ The question came out in a hoarse whisper.
‘I came back and you were gone, and no one knew where you were.’
There was something bright and fierce in his expression.
‘I couldn’t rest and I couldn’t sit still. I was afraid for you. And I knew it was too late. I’ve been trying not to love you, my littlegatita. I’ve been trying not to care, trying to protect myself. But you’re so easy to love, and I fell for you without even realising that I’d fallen.’
His thumbs moved gently over her cheekbones, wiping away tears she hadn’t known were there.
‘I resisted so hard. Love is so destructive, and I’ve hurt so many people. But it was you who showed me another way. You made me see that it wasn’t love that destroyed things, it was anger. My anger.’
He loved her? He really loved her?
Everything took on a strange, slightly unreal quality, and she had to put her hands up and close her fingers around his strong wrists to make sure he was real.
‘How?’ she asked hoarsely. ‘I didn’t do—’
‘You’ve spent years on the streets. Years fighting for your survival. Years with nothing and no one. And, yes, you’re angry—but you haven’t let it define you. You haven’t let it make you bitter. No, it’s your love that defines you. Your joy and your passion. And that’s what I want,mi corazón. I want you to teach me how to love like that...teach me how to loveyoulike that.’
She was trembling, and she didn’t want to look away from him in case this wasn’t real. In case he disappeared, as all the good things in her life seemed to do.
‘You don’t need me to teach you,’ she whispered in a scratchy voice. ‘You already know how to love, Cristiano. You just have to let go of your anger.’
He said nothing for a long moment, staring down into her face, holding her as if he was afraid of exactly the same thing she was: that this thing they were both within touching distance of would vanish and never come back.
‘Is that what you see?’ he asked roughly. ‘When you look at me? How do I deserve anything if anger is all there is?’
His face blurred as more tears filled her vision and she had to blink them away fiercely. ‘That’s not all there is. You’re a good man, a kind man. A man who feels things deeply and intensely. A protective man desperate for something to protect.’
She slid her hands up his wrists, covering the backs of his where they cupped her face.
‘A man who wants someone to be his—and you deserve that, Cristiano. More, I think you need it.’
‘I don’t know that I did to deserve it. But I’m willing to spend my life trying.’ His eyes burned with an intense green fire. ‘Will you be mine, Leonie?’
‘You don’t have to try,’ she said thickly. ‘And I’m already yours. I’ve never been anyone else’s.’
‘Then please come back to me,gatita.’ He searched her face as if he couldn’t quite believe her. ‘Please come home.’
But she didn’t need him to plead. She’d already decided.
She went up on her toes and pressed her mouth to his, and when his arms came around her and held her tight she became whole.
With him she would never be homeless.
Because he was her home.
EPILOGUE
