Page 112 of Hero's Prize

“I like being here with just you,” he continued.

“I like that you’re here at all, Harrison. No more jumping in front of bullets.”

“Then you better stay away from people with guns. Because I will jump in front of every bullet aimed at you for the rest of my life.” He raised an eyebrow at her, daring her to argue.

She didn’t. “We need to talk.”

Those words had him warding off a panic attack, even though they were nothing but the truth. “Yes, we do. Starting with my apology.”

“Colton…”

“What I accused you of is unforgivable. More than that, it was preposterous. As soon as I thought it through, I knew you weren’t the one who leaked that info. That’s not who you are.”

“You’re right—it’s not.”

“I know you want to say some things to me, and I want to give you all the freedom to do that. Anything. You have every right to”—God, it was hard to say these words, but he was going to say them anyway— “never speak to me again and tell me to fuck off.”

He wasn’t going to tell her that, if she did, he planned to use every trick he’d ever known to get her back. Clean tricks, dirty tricks, groveling tricks—whatever it took to get her to let him back into her life.

“But,” he continued, “I’d like to say a few things before you say what you need to say. If that’s okay with you.”

She nodded slowly. “I do have things I need to say, but go ahead.”

“I truly am sorry. It never should’ve crossed my mind that you’d done something like that, and I can promise you that it never will again.”

“Thank you.”

“But that reaction made me realize that I need to get my damned priorities straight. That being with you is a privilege, and if I can’t appreciate that, then I don’t deserve you.”

She simply looked at him, surprised. “I was actually thinking the same thing over the past couple days. Almost exactly.”

“Good. Because it’s the truth, and both of us need to embrace it. I want you just the way you are, Butterscotch. I am so sorry about those cruel things people posted and said, but that is not how I feel in any way. I consider it such an honor to be with you. To be the man at your side. To be the man taking you home.”

She smiled. That gentle, kind smile that was uniquely Ella and lit up her whole face. “I forgive you, Colton. We all make mistakes.”

It was all he wanted to hear, and for the first time, he felt like he could breathe again. He hadn’t screwed up the best thing he ever had. He and Ella were going to make it through this, and he was never going to be this stupid ever again.

And God, he loved this woman. Loved her tenderness and kindness, her feistiness and intelligence, her beauty and her curves. He had to believe that if Lincoln hadn’t spilled the beans, they would’ve still found their way to each other eventually.

She was one of his best friends who had become the love of his life without his even being aware it was happening.

He was the luckiest bastard on the planet.

But still…

“I don’t accept your forgiveness.”

Her big green eyes blinked at him. “Uh…what?”

He grabbed her hand and threaded their fingers together,bringing the back of her palm up to his lips. “I’m eternally grateful for your forgiveness, but I don’t accept it. Not yet.”

“I don’t understand.”

He kissed her hand again. “You’re kind and gentle and amazing, Ella O’Conner. It’s not in your nature to make anybody grovel, but this time, you don’t get a choice.”

Ella received a bouquet of flowers every single day for the next month. Roses. Lilies. Tulips. Orchids.

Colton said he couldn’t send larkspurs, but that it was flowers—and her quick thinking—that had kept them both alive, so the blooms had double the sentimental value to him now. It was only after her house had started to resemble a florist that he’d finally agreed to stop sending them every day.

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