Page 85 of A Play For The Heart
Everything I’ve been waiting to hear and more. A small part of me hesitates. The part that was destroyed by his words, by the way he dismissed what we had.
“You hurt me,” I whisper. The truth of the statement written into my soul. He’s telling me everything I want to hear, but a part of me is terrified that if things get tough, he might do the same thing again.
He unlaces his fingers from mine, taking my face into both of his hands. His eyes bore into mine as his thumbs banishes the tears from my cheeks.
“I know, baby,” he murmurs. “There’s nothing I regret more than breaking your heart.” Another tear falls from my cheek, his thumb banishing it with the rest. “But I’ll spend the rest of our lives making it up to you. If you let me.”
“I’m afraid you’ll hurt me again.”
It’s my last truth. Out in the open.
I watch as he absorbs what I say. He closes his eyes for a moment and when he opens them back up, his eyes are wet with tears.
“Not a day will go by where I won’t think about that. What I said in that hospital room. How badly I hurt you.” The tears fall down his cheeks. “But I will do everything I can to prove to you how much I love you.”
Holding my face in his hands, he waits for my answer. I gaze up at him. His love for me is evident in his face. The fact I’ve never noticed before is truly mind-boggling.
“Okay,” I mumble.
My head jerks in his hands from his shock. Realizing his reaction, he pulls his hands away from my face, saving my brain from any further scrambling.
“Shit. I’m sor—Wait. Did you say okay?”
I nod, holding back a giggle from his reaction.
He pounces on me, releasing the full giggle. Bracing his hands on either side of me, he peppers kisses all over my face and I taste the salt from his tears on his lips. The laughter continues, unable to contain the happiness bursting in my chest.
“I love you,” he says in between kisses. I reach up towards him, shifting his jaw towards me, and place a kiss on his lips. I pour every emotion I’m feeling into the kiss. Happiness. Contentment. Love.
I pull away, keeping my eyes on him. “I love you, too.”
I watch as he steps off the bed, shucking his sweatshirt, joggers, and the boot, leaving him in nothing but boxers. I salivate just at the sight of him. Not seeing him for three weeks has allowed me blatant ogling.
My eyes track him as he hops toward the other side of the bed, lifting the covers and getting into the bed. He pats the spot next to him, lifting the covers for me to lie next to him. I shuffle in beside him. He rolls onto his side, and I slide up against him, my back to his bare chest. We fit together perfectly. The last two pieces of a puzzle.
His arm slings over my waist, pulling me even closer to him. Part of me expected some make-up sex when he took his clothes off. Which I was not opposed to, but this is better. It feels more intimate.
“Let me hold you,” he murmurs into my hair, brushing it away from my face. “Go to sleep, baby.”
The emotions from the night begin to catch up with me and my eyelids begin to go heavy. Right on the cusp of sleep, I feel Henry place a kiss on my temple.
“I’m never letting you go.”
It's a promise.
CHAPTER 36
“Dusk until the dawn, you’re where I wanna go”
Your Bones—Chelsea Cutler
Sawyer
Heatradiatesbeneathmysheets. Maren must have turned the heat up.Finally.I want to cocoon into the warmth. I snuggle deeper into the covers, attempting to banish the bone-chilling cold of late January. My eyes jolt open at the sensation of skin under my cheek. Not sheets.
My erratic heartbeat settles as the events of last night come back to me. Henry standing in my doorframe. His confession. Falling asleep together. I allow myself to drink him in while he lays there, asleep. His curly, chocolate hair is mussed, and his arm is slung over his eyes to block the sunlight from my window. He looks disheveled, and it’s the cutest thing I’ve ever seen. Slowly, I peel my body off his and wiggle out of bed.
The moment I move, the arm covering Henry's eyes snaps out, grabbing my wrist.
