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She thumped his chest with her fist again and he laughed and then coughed. “No. I don’t believe you. If you loved me, you wouldn’t have left. You wouldn’t have...”
Christian tugged her face up, until her tears hit him in his beard. “It’s messed up, I know, Pree. But it’s true. I only left because I wanted to be whole for you. You deserve the very best any man could give you.”
“No, I deserve to be loved, Christian. By you. In whatever way you can. The way you did before. That’s all I asked you for. That’s all I want.”
Keeping her straddling him, Christian reached for the sheaf of papers, intent on throwing them into the roaring fire. But when he looked at them, he found them blank.
Shock pelting through him, he looked at her in horrified admiration. “You made me think you were going to divorce me? That’s the most awful trick anyone’s ever played on me.”
She shrugged, as if she didn’t give a damn. “Everything’s fair in love and war. And this was both.”
He tilted his hips and nudged her with his thighs until she scooted farther and slipped onto his chest. Their pelvises ground up against each other to such perfection that for a second, he forgot what he meant to say.
“I love you so much, Pree,” he whispered, clasping her cheek. “These two months have been so helpful to me... They’ve given me a lot of techniques and strategies about how to manage my headaches and the insomnia. And the time away gave me the perspective I needed to finally see that I could absolutely be the man that you needed, the man Jai would approve of. I do have to warn you that this isn’t—” he pointed to his head “—something that might ever get fixed a hundred percent.”
Tears filled her eyes and she nodded. “I’m sorry if I wasn’t ever—”
“You were exactly what I needed. You were the perfect friend, the perfect mother, the perfect lover, the perfect wife. I had everything I needed with you and Jayden. Will you...forgive me, Starling? I only wanted to be better for you. I...”
She nodded and then she was kissing him again. “Will you give me what I ask for?”
“Yes, baby, anything. The entire world is at your feet. I’m at your feet, Pree.”
“I want to be your wife, Christian. I want a real marriage. And before that I want a grand wedding—with two different ceremonies. I want the entire world to know that you’re mine. I want to celebrate us with all the grandeur I can manage. And if you agree, when we’re ready, I want to have another baby. Two more, if it doesn’t scare you. I want to have you by my side through it all this time. I want to build a life with you. I want to grow old with you, Christian. I want to make everything of this second chance we’ve got.” She buried her face in his neck, her heart beating away rapidly.
He looked at her then, disbelief in his eyes. “Pree...”
“I’m so in love with you, Christian. I have loved you, it seems, for a long time. And I want to continue to love you, whatever happens in the future.”
Christian nodded, no words coming to him. His heart was full to the brim.
“And you know something else that struck me when you were gone?”
“What?” he said, in a hoarse, husky voice.
She tapped his temple, a bittersweet smile curving her mouth. “Even if you did lose us again...” She took his hand and brought it to her chest. “...I have faith that you’ll love me always, Christian.
“That you’ll find your way back to loving me and our son whatever happens. You should have some faith, too.”
And then she buried her face in his neck and sobbed her heart out.
Christian vowed this would be the last time his wife would ever cry over him. “I love you, Pree. I love you with everything I have in me. And I’ll spend the rest of our lives proving that to you.”
Priya knew, as she hid her damp face in his neck, as Christian ran his palm over her back soothingly, whispering filthy things and crooning to her, making her laugh, dizzy with laughter and pleasure and joy, that he’d finally returned to her.
Forever and always.
