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She squeezed his fingers. “You have so much love in you, Dane. Look at everything you’ve done for them. And everything you’ve done for me.”
His eyes melted to baby blue, sadness creeping into them. “I never gave you the piece of my heart you deserved.”
“Did you ever think that maybe I wouldn’t let you? That it was a two-way street? We had our rules because we both needed them. But you showed me how you loved me all along in everything you did for me and Uncle Lochlan. You moved me into your homes so I’d have more money to take care of him. You were always there, listening to me, comforting me. And you made it possible for me to make the last years of Uncle Lochlan’s life the best they could be.”
He laughed, a sharp sound in the quiet. “For God’s sake, I didn’t even give you the promotion you deserved. I never let you manage a project. And the worst is that I didn’t even realize you truly wanted to.”
All she could say was, “Dane, please.”
He shook his head as he barked out his anger with himself. “You deserved so much more than I gave you. You were the one who showed me how to put heart into all my projects. That wasn’t me. It was all you.”
“You always gave me everything you could.” She wanted to throw herself at him, hold him. But he had to let all his feelings out before she could.
He shot out a harsh breath. “I didn’t give you my love. And Cammie, I’ve loved you since the moment I met you. I loved you that first night. If you hadn’t come into my office the next day, I would have searched heaven and earth to find you. I should have told you that the moment you sat down. I don’t know why I didn’t. Maybe I couldn’t recognize what I felt back then. Maybe I knew all along I’d screw it up.”
He tightened his fist; she was afraid his nails would break the skin of his palm.
“If I had been a better man, I would have offered you not only the job, but also myself.” He tipped his head back and closed his eyes as if the spring sun burned his irises. Then he looked at her again. “I have fallen more in love with you every day since. And every day, I told myself we had our rules, the perfect working relationship. That you were my best friend. That I shouldn’t ask for more. Because I didn’t believe I deserved more. There’s always been a part of me that believed that my parents ran away from me.” He laid his hand over his heart. “That somehow, I didn’t know exactly how to go about loving, and I pushed them away because I smothered them. I never wanted to smother you.”
She laid her hand over his and whispered, “You’ve always had a huge heart. And you could never have loved your parents too much. Real love can’t smother. They were the ones who let you down.”
He nodded. “I figured that out. Yesterday. After you left the manor.” He smiled. “And with a little pep talk from Fernsby.”
Cammie laughed. “He gave me a pep talk too.”
Then he said the thing she’d craved to hear for twelve long years. “I love you, Cammie. And I don’t care about our damned rules.” He held her hand in his, right over his heart. “I know we can’t possibly screw this up. Because I love you too much. I want you too much. And I will do everything in my power never to disappoint you. To always hold you close. To think of you first, to love you, to be the man you deserve.”
She wanted to throw herself at him. “And I love you because you’ve always had heart. You didn’t need me to show you that. You’ve always deserved love. I’ve always known how focused you are on taking care of the family and what a terrible example of love your parents gave you. But you learned how to love in spite of them.”
He smiled, his heart shining in his eyes. “Now you know everything there is to know about me.”
“I’ve always been afraid of losing what I had,” she admitted. “I needed the rules because I was afraid to risk. I was afraid of not being good enough. I’ve been afraid of asking for too much, just the way you have.”
He trailed his hands up her arms, then cupped her face. “I would give up the entire business for you. I’d give up everything in the world for you, everything I do and everything I am, if I could be the perfect man for you.”
“You are the perfect man for me. You don’t need to give up a thing, because I’ve loved you from the first moment I saw you too.” She leaned against him, letting his warmth soak into her body, and tipped her head back. “Let’s make a new rule that takes precedence over all the other rules. Let’s make a rule that we’ll never need any more rules. That we won’t be afraid to say what we need or ask for what we want.”
