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“That’s right. And we’ve done that.” My eyes water, the back of my throat closing up. All this man has done for me—I’ll never be able to repay him. “You gave me a beautiful summer, Charlie, and I’ll take that memory with me forever.”
His eyes don’t—won’t—leave my face. “Now it’s my turn to tell you what I want.”
“I don’t care what you want.”
Hurt scars his handsome face. “You’re a liar.”
I wiggle in his tight grip. “Let me go.” My body buzzes, every breath in my lungs gone.
His eyes close briefly, his chest heaving. “I wantyou, Ruby.”
“You don’t want me,” I whisper, bursting into tears. Desperate, dizzy with disbelief. “Charlie, I’m bad news, okay? I’m temporary. We were supposed to be temporary.”
“It’s not temporary.” He takes a shaky breath, his big chest heaving. “Not anymore. Not for me.”
“Charlie ...”
“I’m not the smartest man, darlin’,” he says gruffly, curling his warm hands around my shoulders. “I’m a cowboy. But I know what I want. I know how to hold on to things. And I know a good thing when I see it. Like this ranch. Like you, Ruby. And I’d be a damn fool to let you go.”
Lips trembling, I tilt my face up to meet his gaze. “And what am I if I stay?”
He meets my gaze. Steely, unflinching.
Certain.
“You’re mine.”
Mine.
The words make me wilt.
He’s claimed me.
I let out a sob and would crumple to the ground if Charlie weren’t here to catch me. He sweeps me into his strong arms, pulling me up to face him. Heat rolls off his body, curls through my core.
“I want you here, Ruby,” he husks. “On the ranch with me. In my arms. In my bed and no one else’s.”
My body bends to him, as if it knows how badly it needs him. “You can’t,” I sob. “You can’t fall in love with me.”
He freezes, a strange look on his face.
Then he smiles, a beautiful smile that has my heart fluttering, and says, “Ruby, baby, I already am.”
I gasp, sagging into his chest. “No. You don’t love me.”
He chuckles. “If you think I don’t love you, then you need to get those beautiful eyes checked. Because you’re all I see. You’re all I’ve seen since you walked into Nowhere and into my heart.” He sweeps his hand under my chin. “I fucking love you, Sunflower, so deal with it.”
Love, my heart whispers. I want it. I need it.
Even if it can’t last.
Because I won’t last.
Because I don’t deserve him.
His grin fades into a serious expression. “I know it’s fast. Tell me I’m outta my mind. Tell me you love me a year from now. But stay. I want you here. I need you here. I’m not letting you go. I’ve waited ten years for you and I’m not losing you now.”His hand frames my face as he kisses me hard and desperately. “Let me love you, Ruby. Because I do.”
At the injustice of it all, more tears fill my eyes and my heart pounds. How can he think I don’t love him?
