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"That’s what I was doing as you walked up." I nod.
"That’s why you left me a note with details of how to find you? You knew I’d come in search of you?"
"I hoped." I tuck a strand of hair behind her ear. "I didn’t want any more secrets between us. I wanted to tell you everything."
"Even though it meant you’d lose your friend for good?"
The ball in my throat grows bigger, until it seems to fill my chest and twist my stomach and turn my guts into a seething mass of hurt. I nod, then swallow to dislodge it. "I need to move forward. You make me want to move forward. To move toward you. I cannot lose you again. If I did, there’d be no coming back from that. I have to let go of Adam because you are my life."
She cups my cheek. "So, all this time when you said you went running with Adam, you were—"
"Running alone, sometimes with Tiny. And Adam would join me. We’d talk, I’d reassure him I’d do everything possible to adopt his daughter and ensure his wife was cared for. Of course, he’d also give me advice about us—" I nod at the space between us.
"Wait, you told him about us?" she cries.
"Of course I did. There are no secrets between us, and now"—I place my palm over the one she has on my cheek—"there’re none between us, either."
Another tear squeezes out from the corner of her eye. I bend and lick it up because it’s too precious to be wasted. "Don’t cry for me, baby. I knew I had to deal with what I was going through. I knew I had to face up to what happened to me. I was waiting for the right time. I was waiting for now."
"I’m sorry for your loss, Sir, truly."
"All I need is you." I kiss her forehead. "Your beauty, which gentles my soul. Your love, which fills all the emptiness inside me. Your sunny nature, your joie-de-vivre, which gives me life. Your heart, which speaks to me and tells me I’m yours."
"You’re mine." She stares between my eyes. "Mine."
"Mine." I place a kiss over one eye, then the other, then on each cheek, and brush my lips over hers. "I love you, Penny. My Little Dove. My savior. My redeemer. You threw me a lifeline. And while it took me a long time to admit how much I needed it, I’m glad I latched onto it."
"I love you, Sir," she whispers against my mouth. "You were an asshole—still are an asshole—but you’re my asshole."
"I do prefer alphahole," I drawl.
She chuckles. "Promise me you’ll never change how you fuck me. Promise me you’ll never hide anything from me again. Promise me you’ll always love me."
I wrap my fingers around the nape of her neck and haul her close enough that our eyelashes entwine. "I love you. I adore you. I’m nothing without you."
Her breath hitches.
"I love you a million times over, and I’ll never apologize for it."
"Oh." Her pupils dilate.
"I will die before I let anything happen to you."
Her lips tremble. "Promise me you’ll live."
"I live to see the light in your eyes, to hear you sass me and defy me, and to drive me a little crazy with your rambling thoughts, and your chatter, and your laughter. I live… for you, only you."
She half laughs. "And I thought you didn’t have a romantic bone in your body."
"Including this one?" I lower my hands to her hips and fit her snugly over that ever-excited part of me that tends to stand up whenever she is around.
"Technically, that’s a muscle."
"Technically, you could call that my third leg, but whatever."
She makes a gagging sound. "That was terrible."
"Some parts of me are never going to change, but I hope they won’t deter you from what I’m going to ask you for next."
