Page 86 of Billionaire Lumberjack's Bargain

He presses his lips together. “I guess not, but it doesn’t make sense that anyone would come after Dave.” He cradles my face in his hands and brushes the hair back from my cheeks. “They would have come after Pops ormeif they really wanted to scare us. And worrying about something that popped up in a dream isn’t going to change whatdidhappen.”

I release a heavy breath.

My heart finally starts to slow.

“You’re right.”

Just having him here, holding me, sitting in the peaceful darkness, knowing he will stop anything that ever threatens us, is enough to start calming me from that sheer terror that gripped me only minutes ago.

He presses his forehead against mine, and I let my eyes drift closed, absorbing all the things this man is offering.

His strength.

His determination.

How insanely protective he is.

All of it washes over me, coating me in a warmth that heats my soul, lifting it from the very dark place I was in when I woke. “Thank you.”

He lifts his head. “For what?”

“For being here.”

“Fuck.” He shakes his head. “Don’t thank me, Camille. Please. It isn’t altruistic. I’m here because…” His lips press together, like he’s fighting the words. “Fuck it. I’m here because Iwantyou, Camille. I have for a fucking long time, far longer than I should have. Far longer than it was appropriate, given everything you’ve been through. And after what happened today…”

My body heats at the mere reference to what I allowed to occur in that bedroom.

“I want itall, Camille. I want you. I want you and me. I want you, me, and Davey together likethis. And I know it’s stupid for me to even suggest it. It isn’t fair for me to say this to you, but…”

He doesn’t finish.

He doesn’t actually say the words.

The unasked question just hangs in the air between us.

Do you feel the same way?

It shouldn’t be an easy answer.

Not when things arebeyondcomplicated.

My heart is a mess. My head is, too. My young son, who just lost his father, sleeps right across the hall, and this little girl growing inside me will be coming into the world soon without one.

But I don’t have to think about how to respond because only one word sits on my tongue. Only one answer feelsright.

“Yes.”

It comes out on a whispered breath, so quiet that he wouldn’t even be able to hear it if we weren’t pressed so closely together, but it sounds like an explosion going off in my own head. The weight such a simple word carries is like an atom bomb detonating and blowing away everything that stood between us.

I lean forward and drift my lips over his.

Doing the thing he’s so afraid to—pushing.

For so long, I’ve been holding back, preventing myself fromfeelingthe things I do for this man.

And he’s always been there.

Never expecting anything from me.

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