Page 35 of Dallas
I run my hands up her back. I don’t want to keep what I know from her. “I got a call from my PI.”
A few seconds go by before she slowly lifts her gaze. “The one who was investigating me?” she murmurs.
“Yes.” I stare directly into her eyes.
Her shoulders drop. “So, he told you who I am.”
“Yes.” I spread my fingers out on her back and draw her closer.
“Are you mad at me?”
I frown and shake my head. “No, baby. You said you weren’t in any danger, which was not a lie. I assume no one specific is after you. You’re not running for your life. You’re hiding from the world, and that’s understandable.”
She lifts her face. Tears well up in my girl’s eyes. When they run down her cheeks, she starts quietly sobbing.
I pull her the rest of the way against me and hug her close, kissing her temple. “I’m so sorry for what you’ve been through. It must have been horrifying.”
She cries harder, and I gently rock her back and forth. She needs to release her emotions. I suspect she has pent-up feelings that have been trapped for years. I have questions, but I don’t need to ask them right now.
After a long time, her sobs turn to sniffles, and she finally leans back.
I lift the corner of my T-shirt to wipe off her face.
“People wouldn’t leave me alone. I had no privacy,” she begins.
“People can be cruel.”
“I spent three years basically in hiding. My nanny took me in. She was a godsend. She loved me. When I turned eighteen, I paid my lawyer to erase me from existence and reinvented myself. How did your PI find me?”
“I assumed you were in witness protection. If that had been the case, you would have probably witnessed a murder. Since you said you were from Florida, he went back through all the high-profile cases for several years until he found a picture of you.”
She swallows. “That means anyone could do the same thing.”
“They could, but no one else is aware you changed your identity, baby, so they aren’t looking.”
“You figured it out. What made you suspect I wasn’t who I said I was?”
I smile. “I felt a connection with you from the moment I stepped into the library. The air sizzled around us. I knew you were in a disguise of sorts. I just sensed it.”
She shivers. “That’s weird, you know.”
I chuckle and shrug. “I’m in tune with you. It will grow stronger every day of our lives.”
“I’m not sure whether that’s a good thing or a bad thing. I should be frightened.”
I shake my head. “Nothing to be scared of. You feel it, too. You might be fighting it harder than me, but you know you’re mine.”
She lowers her hands to my chest again and absently strokes my pecs. “I knew it at that moment, too,” she whispers.
Fuck, I love her. I slide my palms under my T-shirt and stroke them up her bare back.
She lifts her gaze again. “Now you understand why I’m a horrible choice for a partner. If anyone discovers who I am, your life will become part of my living hell.”
I shake my head. “There is no my life and your life anymore, baby. We’re in this life together now. Whatever happens to one of us, happens to both of us. I will protect you and always be by your side. Nothing can touch you inside this estate. You’re safe from the press or anyone else who ever wants to get to you. Everyone in my family will have your back.”
She wipes new wetness from her eyes. “I can’t ask people to do that, Dallas. Claire… Reagan… Even your cousins. They didn’t ask for my shit to land on their doorstep.”
“Baby, Claire and Reagan are your sisters now. They are the sweetest women I’ve ever met, until you, of course.” I grin. “They would never judge or turn you away. Neither would my cousins. Haven’t you noticed how fiercely protective they are?”
