Page 35 of Guarded By the SEAL

I smile as I hear her kind, soft words. She really is smarter than me, isn’t she? Except for one thing. I’m almost one hundred percent convinced that it’s going to be ideal in the end.

“I am with you through anything,” I reassure her. “I will be by your side through it all. Whatever you need… and I will probably be making some changes as well, so we can do it together.”

Now, if that isn’t some happily ever after shit, I don’t know what is. I couldn’t ask for better.

27

PETRA

Four Months Later…

Even though they had no choice but to plead guilty, it was a nice feeling to hear Jake say that he had done everything wrong, including causing the death of my father. I feel like a weight has been lifted off my shoulders and now I’m finally free. I mean, I was free of Jake the moment I signed the divorce papers, but this is really it now. He’s going down forever. He won’t be coming out anytime soon.

“How do you feel?” Harry wraps his arm around my waist. “That sentencing was awesome, wasn’t it? To finally have an end to that horrible situation is amazing, and now we can just move on.”

“I love it.” I snuggle in close to him right outside the courtroom, adoring the silver lining to have come from this whole horrible mess. I wish I hadn’t lost so much to get Harry, but at least we found one another. “I’m really happy to finally have it done. Even though it was only four months ago, it feels like it was alifetime now. It’s this horrible, distant memory, almost like it happened to someone else. I’m glad to move on.”

“The stories about the other girls involved in the sex trafficking were a lot, weren’t they?”

A darkness overcomes Harry, and I feel it myself. The knowledge that not only could that have been my fate, but that other people have suffered hell because of the group that my husband was involved with… I’m not responsible for what happened, but that doesn’t mean that I don’t want to get involved and help them.

“I have an idea,” I tell Harry warily. “But I want to discuss it with you. See what you think.”

“Oh, yeah?” He cocks an eyebrow at me. “Well, that works out well because I want to take you out to dinner. I think the pair of us need a celebration after all of this, don’t we? After everything.”

I nod, relieved. Dinner will be the place to discuss it. It isn’t that I need Harry’s permission or anything like that. I’m slowly coming out of my shell and realizing that I’m a kick-ass woman who can take on the world all by myself. No, what I want from Harry is his support and advice. I respect his opinion as much as he does mine, and I like bouncing ideas off him. It makes me feel amazing.

“Let’s do it.” I squeeze him closer to me, absolutely loving the feel of his body next to mine. “Do you have any ideas of where we should go? Is there anywhere nearby? I’m surprisingly starving.”

As we walk, clinging together like we can’t bear to let one another go, I tell Harry about the friends I’ve been reconnecting with. Over the last few months, I’ve been working hard to get everyone back in my life. It hasn’t been easy since everyonehas moved on with their lives. Some old friends haven’t been interested in me at all, but I’m working toward being much happier. I love it. I honestly can’t believe that I allowed myself to be put in a box where I didn’t have anyone. I can’t believe I didn’t see it.

But I’m learning from all of my mistakes now. It’s hard to accept that I went through all of that, but it’s much better to take it as a lesson that won’t happen again. I’m always learning.

Eventually, we arrive at the restaurant, and as soon as we’re seated, Harry asks me about my plan. I love this about him. I adore that he always listens to me and he really cares about what I’m saying.

“Well, my idea is this.” I clutch my hands together excitedly. “Since I have my father’s fortune and I haven’t known what to do with it, I have a plan. It formed in my mind while we were in the courtroom.” Harry smiles. He seems to already know where I’m going with this. “I want to use it to help. I want to start up a charity to help the girls who have been trafficked. I’m sure that there are more out there who need help. The ones who were linked to Jake’s group, and more as well. I want to do whatever I can to help.”

“I thought you might do something like that,” Harry replies with a soft smile. “I have seen your caring heart growing a lot over the last few months, and I think you’ll be great at that. Obviously, I will help you with whatever I can do. I don’t know if you need much from me, but I’ll be there.”

“Of course, I need you.” I lean across and take his hand. “I love you, Harry. Everything about you.”

Saying those three special words, I love you, took a little while to come around. I think that we both felt it for a long time, but we didn’t want to push things too far, too quickly. But now that we have finally let them out, we can’t stop saying them.I love youare the most wonderful words on the planet.

“I love you too.” Harry strokes my fingers. “God, I love you so much, Petra. I honestly thought that I would never love anyone again. After what happened to me… I thought I was done with it all, but here we are.”

I toss my head back and laugh. “Yeah, tell me about it. I thought the same as well. Yet here we are.”

We’ve fixed one another, made each other whole again, and that’s the best thing ever. There were parts of one another that I don’t think we even knew needed fixing. It’s wonderful. This is what love is supposed to feel like. It’s what we both haven’t experienced before and now can’t get enough of.

Dinner rolls into a wonderful evening which ends with us on the couch, cuddling into one another, watching a movie. My fingers tickle along my belly as we stare at the TV screen and I think about the little secret that I have hiding away in there. I don’t know why I haven’t told Harry yet. I guess because we haven’t had a moment while we’ve been focusing on the court case, but maybe the time is now.

“Are you okay?” Harry leans forward, sensing that something is up with me. “You seem thoughtful.”

“Yeah, I am.” I pull away from Harry because I want to see his face as I tell him this. “I have something I want to tell you.” I suck in a couple of breaths. “I’ve been waiting for the right moment to tell you.”

Harry sits up straighter and stares at me, his eyes wide with worry. “Oh, no. You’re making me panic.”

I can’t stop myself from giggling. Seeing this big Navy SEAL, this security officer, trembling with fear because of my words is funny. Knowing that I can have such an effect on him is insane. But then, he makes me feel the same way. I go on a rollercoaster with him because I want to be with him so badly.

---