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Her throat burned. With her free hand, she swiped at the tears rolling down her cheeks.
“It’s the Holy Trinity of how I feel about you. I want you, need you, love you. There will never be anyone else for me, Juliet Kilroy. The day my parents died, I thought that was the end of me but it wasn’t. My heart went into stasis. Some kind of suspended animation waiting for you to jumpstart it to life. I’ve wondered why I couldn’t move on and the only possible conclusion is that it was waiting for you. This wonky heart of mine only works when you’re in the room. It only beats when you’re beside me. It only exists to love you.”
The tears kept coming and so did his words, relentless in their assault on her heart.
“A week ago, you made me an offer. You said you’d help carry me through the pain. You assured me your heart was strong enough to beat for two. You promised to bring me back into this life. It was the kindest, sweetest, best offer I’ve ever had and I screwed up when I turned you down.
“I can’t go another day without you. My heart needs what only you can give, so Jules, put me out of my misery and tell me I haven’t ruined the best thing that’s ever happened to me. Because it’s always been you.”
“Oh, Tad.” She threaded her hand from his heart to cup his strong jaw. Shockingly, that rock-solid model of manliness quivered under her touch. “I’ve been waiting for you to see me.”
“Jules, there’s never been a moment I didn’t see you. Never a moment I didn’t want you. You’re the—”
“Air I breathe?” she offered.
There it was.That outrageously sexy smile that killed multiple brain cells every time. She might never recover from it. She might never need to.
He went on. “You’re the—”
“Blood to my heart?”
His lips twitched. “The sentence I haven’t finished.”
“The thought I haven’t formed yet.”
He kissed her softly, licking the tears that painted her lips.
“Your lines are terrible.”
“I know,” she whispered around a sobby hitch in her throat. “Blimey, I know. What if we screw up?”
“What if we don’t?” He touched his forehead to hers. “Jules, we crossed the line weeks ago, maybe months before that. We always knew it would be tough to go back.”
“So that’s your reasoning. It’s easier to move forward than to go back?”
His smile was grimly beautiful. “Forward is never easier. It’s terrifying. But I know that we already have an amazing foundation here. We’re friends, we’re family, we’re very hot, attractive people. The universe demands it.”
“You’re barmy.”
“I’m in love.”
His warm, rich laugh reached inside her and unfurled every tight bud of pain and every fist of doubt. She couldn’t speak or smile or move a muscle of her face while she worked on not breaking down completely.
At her silence, his laughter died and gravity took root on his handsome face. “Is it the women I’ve been with? Because I haven’t…not since…”
Her neck felt all tingly, as if she were getting a premonition. “You haven’t what?”
Raw emotion worked the muscles around his mouth. “That night you went cuckoo and jumped me changed everything. I haven’t so much as copped a feel with another woman since.”
Not until he placed a fingertip under her chin and pushed it closed did she realize that her jaw must have fallen slack.
“Say something, Jules. Don’t fail me now.”
Thought shards refused to bond. Tad hadn’t touched another woman in the last year.
A year.Every second she imagined him with someone else had just been more wasted energy. After a moment, she finally managed to put something together.
“Those three seconds of horror—it made you celibate?”
