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His words hit her like tiny arrows, loosening something inside her. A weight lifted from her shoulders. He really didn’t care?
“I do like to cook,” she admitted.
He smiled. “Then cook when you want to. But not if it’s gonna cause you stress. Not if it takes you back there.”
She gasped. How had Aaron known?
“My ideal marriage is a team effort. We both lean on each other when we need to.”
There he went again, speaking, as if this was a real marriage. Hope bubbled inside her, rising and expanding with each lingering moment he stared into her eyes, as if she was the only thing that mattered in this world.
He brushed his thumb over her cheek, tucking a piece of hair behind her ear. “And while we’re at it, you should know you can be as fucking loud as you want to. To voice your own thoughts, opinions—especially if they’re different from mine. You don’t need anyone else’s permission—least of all mine—but if you want it, it’s yours. My greatest desire for you is that you find your voice and that inner confidence. Just know that having you in my space is a gift unlike any other.”
How could she not fall for this man when he said things like that?
“What if I don’t know who I am?” Tears blurred her vision.
He cupped her jaw, tilting her face towards his as he leaned in. “Then you’re allowed to take the time to figure that out.” His sweet cinnamon breath coasted over her lips. “But what I see is the most kind, beautiful, brave, and strongest woman I’ve ever known.”
She blinked, causing the tears to drip down her cheeks as she shook her head. “I’m so weak. If you only knew how much. In the moments where it really mattered, I failed.”
“We all fail sometimes. But it meant you tried. Neither of us can go back and change the past. We have to learn from it and try better in the future. You’ve got to learn to let that go. You’re the only one with the keys to the prison of your regrets.” He swiped her tears with his thumbs, and she closed her eyes, relishing how his touch grounded her amid the swell of emotions clamoring inside.
“I’m going to kiss you now unless you say no,” Aaron said, making her eyes shoot open.
He wanted to kiss her? “But no one is here to see.”
“This one’s for us.” He melded his mouth to hers, sending a firestorm rocketing through her, incinerating all other emotions and igniting a deep want inside Brynn’s body.
He traced the seam of her lips before she opened for him. He tasted like freedom and risk. Of second chances and hope. She clutched his shirt over the hard ridges of his abs, sending lust thrumming through her with every rapid heartbeat.
The scratch of his five o’clock shadow brushed her sensitive jaw as he deepened the kiss, twirling her higher and higher in a whirlwind of sensations she’d never experienced.
He pulled back, resting his forehead to hers, their shared panting breaths between them. For the first time in a long time, she let herself hope for more. Because for the first time in her life, she felt safe in a man’s arms.
And after that kiss, it was clear she wasn’t the only one falling in this relationship.
