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Clint drank the life from Sarah’s lips like a starving man who’d been denied nourishment, a man who would never get enough. He’d thought of nothing else the last two months. Thoughts of Sarah were the only thing that had kept him alive in the hellhole where he’d been imprisoned. Thoughts of her had given him the will to survive the beatings and torture. And he’d decided during those nightmarish weeks that if he came out alive, he’d find her and make things right.
He didn’t want to admit how close he’d come to giving up when Stan finally found him. As he crushed Sarah to his weakened body, claiming her soft, eager mouth, Clint realized he’d been given a second chance.
“I love you.”
Sarah began to laugh and cry at the same time. They’d said the words simultaneously, in between passionate kisses. “God, I love you!” she repeated, kissing his eyes, nose and cheeks. “How did you get here? Never mind it doesn’t matter! I thought I’d never see you again.”
Clint took her mouth again, his hands moving over her desperately, wanting to make sure he wasn’t dreaming as he had been so many times before. When his hand glided over her belly, he pulled away in shock, breaking their kiss to look down into her joy-filled eyes.
She answered his unasked question by taking his hand and placing it back on her hard stomach. There was no denying the flutter coming from within, against his palm. His eyes stared into hers with awe and disbelief.
“Say hello to your daughter,” she said softly, her eyes shining bright with tears of hope and happiness.
My daughter.
Clint felt his heart swell with love, and the hot sting of unexpected emotion filled his eyes, spilling over to mix with the rain falling down upon them. He couldn’t speak when Sarah reached up, and cupped his cheeks, love and tenderness overflowing in her beautiful eyes. He shook his head no, unable to accept the truth. He must be dreaming.
“Clint.” The sound of her voice forced him to meet her eyes. “You’re not dreaming,” she said, reading his mind. “This is real. I’m real…our baby is real.”
Our baby.
“God, when Susan told me you’d disappeared, I lost my mind. I didn’t want to believe I’d never see you again. I wanted to go looking for you myself!” She sobbed brokenly before continuing, “Tell me you came back for me.”
At that moment, it was as if new life had been breathed into Clint’s abused body. Sarah’s tortured, unsure words tore at his heart. He crushed her to him, closing his hands in her hair. He took a shuddering breath. “God, don’t you know yet how much I love you? Thoughts of you kept me going, Sarah. Gave me the strength to go on when I was in that…” He clenched his teeth, not wanting to subject her to the ugliness of what he’d endured.
“God, Sarah. I’ve got so much to make up to you. I fought my feelings for you. I fought you every step of the way. Brushed it off as lust when you had my heart all along. I don’t deserve your love…our child.” Clint fell to his knees, burying his face in her belly, his hands clutching the soaked material of her shirt. Thankful for so many reasons. “Our child…”
“Daughter,” Sarah pointed out. “And do you think you have a monopoly on being stubborn?” she teased.
Clint glanced up to meet her smiling eyes. “Maybe the next one will be a boy.” He gently pulled her down until she was on her knees in front of him. “I never thought I’d have a family.”
“Well, you have one now.”
He buried his hands in her hair. He never wanted to let her go.
“And we’re not going anywhere.”
Leave it to Sarah to make it sound like a threat. He grinned, for the first time in months. “Good, because neither am I, angel.”
Clint didn’t have to pull Sarah in for a kiss, she met him halfway. She brought her arms up and wrapped them around his neck. He crushed her against him, careful of her belly and the new life there. He was home. He didn’t know how long they stayed out there like that, and it wasn’t important. All that mattered was this moment in time.