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Despite how her words sounded, his grin widened. “Why shouldn’t you?”
“Because it won’t last between us.”
“What makes you so sure?” He looked perplexed, yet determined to understand.
Her voice dropped to a whisper. “Because nothing in my life lasts.”
“Your friendship with Gabby has.”
Well, yeah, he had a point there. But that was Gabby. They had been through so much together. Nothing could tear them apart. Maybe. Not that Mia would ever vocalize it to Gabby, but she worried about her working as a detective. Any day she could wake up, go to work, and not come home again.
The same could be said about Jaxson.
They could be ripped from her life tomorrow, and she wouldn’t be able to do anything about it. Of course, voicing that would cause an argument she knew she wouldn’t win with them. So, she never brought it up. She held her fears and worries inside, like everything else.
She couldn’t understand why Gabby became a cop in the first place. Well, okay, she understood part of it. Gabby loved to help people—as did she. They simply both went about it in different ways. Mia might not like the way Gabby chose, but she understood it. For the most part. The other part of her—the selfish part—hated and despised what path Gabby chose. Because it was the same path her father had taken. Yet, he hadn’t been a good cop. Not like Gabby. Not like Jaxson. That made a huge difference. She had never—would never—voice her opinion about the matter to Gabby either. It would break her friend’s heart, and that was the last thing she ever wanted to do.
Just like she didn’t want to break Jaxson’s heart, yet it had to be done. It wouldn’t work between them.
“Take a leap of faith. Trust me.” He lowered his mouth and brushed his lips across hers, igniting a buried flame of desire she swore she’d never dig up. She told herself to never let her feelings for him show. When he spoke to her so sweetly and touched her so gently, it was hard to remember why.
“I will cherish you. I will love you as you deserve to be loved. I will protect you until my dying day. I will be there for you in anything and everything life throws at you. I will be your rock.”
He said each word in between a feather-light kiss that started to tear down the wall she had built like a fortress around her heart. She had erected it from the moment she’d realized how much she loved him.
Because she would not survive if life took another thing from her that she wanted desperately.
But he was right about one thing.
She had her friendship with Gabby. Although she worried needlessly that that could be taken away from her on any given day, she didn’t let it stop her from remaining friends with Gabby. She could never throw Gabby out of her life. They were bonded in a way most people would never experience. As they shouldn’t. Nobody should have to live through what she had.
Take a leap of faith.
Could she?
Should she?
No, she shouldn’t.
She ran her hands up his back, relishing in the way he trembled at her soft touch. Then her fingers finally did what she’d been dying to do. They wove their way through his black hair as she deepened the kiss. He took the cue from her, tangling tongues and weaving a beautiful dance of love.
She was terrified.
She was quivering with fear this would never last between them.
But she was also quivering with intense bliss. She had wanted this man for so long, she knew she wouldn’t be able to resist him if he kept telling her such tender, sweet words. If he would’ve done this in the very beginning, she wouldn’t have resisted for as long as she had. And his kisses were definitely a new weakness that she never knew would be her downfall.
The kiss slowed, more so by him than her.
“I love you, Mia. I’m laying my heart on the line and telling you with every breath in my body, down to my very soul, I will be the right man for you.”
Framing his face with her hands, she smiled. “You know how picky I am with men.”
Part of her knew one of the reasons was because they never compared to Jaxson. She had instinctively always compared them, even knowing she shouldn’t. Not that she’d voice that. Not yet, anyway.
“None of them were good enough for you.”
“And none of them were you.”
