Page 51 of Marry Me…Maybe?
‘I don’t need you, Theo,’ she scoffed, keeping her tone light, but he could tell she was holding back. She was a tigress and there was no way she’d ever be tamed. Not that he wanted to do that. He loved her just as she was.
The realisation struck him hard, forcing the breath right out of his lungs.
He was in love with her.
She was staring at him, waiting for his pithy reply, but he had nothing. He was literally speechless.
Clearly, she thought he wasn’t saying anything back because he didn’t agree with her statement and she got up, her body suddenly stiff with anger, colour flooding her cheeks.
‘I didn’t come here looking for sympathy.’
He stood up too, frowning hard, totally unsure about how tohandle the situation now. He was reeling from the insight about how he really felt about her. How he’d felt for a while now.
Her gaze bored into his and he felt more exposed than he had in a very long time. Frighteningly so. He couldn’t speak. Couldn’t formulate a plan. So he just stood there, frowning and being ineffectual.
‘I think I should go,’ she said curtly, brushing her hair away from her face with a shaking hand and walking past him towards the door.
He caught her hand as she passed and swung her back to face him, not sure what to say, but knowing he had to say something before she walked away from him for good.
‘Don’t, Emily. Stay.’
She tried to shake off his grip but he held her fast. ‘You can’t make me, Theo.’
‘I know that, but I think you should.’
‘Why?’
He shook his head. He wanted to have the courage to say it. To tell her how he really felt. But the words wouldn’t come. They were jammed painfully in his throat.
‘You don’t really want me here. You just feel like you have to play the big man, to save the damsel in distress. Just like your mother said you do.’
He shook his head again, but it only seemed to enrage her more.
‘Let go of me. I need to get out of here.’
Her voice sounded panicky now, and she pulled away from him again hard – but he clung on.
‘No. I’m not letting you go.’
She stared at him wildly for a few seconds, her eyes filled with the hurt he’d sensed hiding inside her all day, and then her face crumpled, fat tears welling in her eyes before spilling down hercheeks in a torrent. Her brows drew together and she dropped her head, seemingly unwilling for him to witness her pain.
Releasing his grip on her hand, he wrapped his arms around her and held her tightly; making soothing noises into her hair.
She sobbed in his arms, her whole body shaking with the ferocity of her grief, and still he clung on, absorbing the throbs and shivers of her torment. He wanted to take her pain away, take it himself and hold onto it for her until she’d worked out how to deal with it, but he knew he couldn’t do that. All he could do was be there while she accepted it and fought through it herself.
After a few minutes she seemed to get her convulsions under control and he relaxed his hold slightly, intending to lean back and look her in the eyes, to let her know with his expression that it was okay to do this – that he was here for her.
‘Don’t let go,’ she whispered. ‘Please don’t let go.’
So he pulled her in tight again and they rocked gently together, her breathing growing slower as she began to get it under control.
After another minute of clinging to him she finally relaxed her hold and moved away a little. He released her and took a step back so he could look at her.
‘Can I get you anything?’ he asked, running his thumbs over her cheeks to brush away her tears.
She gave him a watery smile. ‘Some tissues wouldn’t go amiss.’
He nodded and left her standing there, with her arms wrapped around herself, while he fetched her some.
