Page 234 of Beyond the Blue Horizon
That’s what love was, wasn’t it?
And he’d failed at that.
Fuck.
He failed.
Now he had to figure out how to get her back so she would be safe.
No. Maybe he would never love her. But it was a sacrifice he was willing to make.
FORTY-SIX
THEO
“Never thoughtI could feel like this.” I gazed at Piper as we were lying tangled in the middle of my bed. Flames from the fire caressed her bare flesh.
Piper brushed tender fingers down my face and scratched her nails through my beard. A soft smile played along the rim of her mouth. “You keep saying that.”
“I keep having a hard time believing it.”
Understanding passed through her features. This girl seeing me in a way that no one else could. “You’re an amazing man, Theo. I don’t care what anyone else has ever said about you in the past. It doesn’t matter what your mistakes have led you to believe. I feel who you are…right here.”
She took my hand and placed it over the steady thrum of her heart.
“That’s where I want to be. Right inside your beautiful heart.” It was an entreaty from my soul.
Her teeth raked her bottom lip. “Good. Because that’s where you are.”
I let my gaze wander her face, unable to look away.
Peace so close.
Tangible and within reach.
“We’d better get over to the other cabin. I bet that little man is wondering where his mommy is,” I murmured.
Redness flushed her cheeks. “And I bet Nelly knows exactly where I am.”
“She doesn’t seem to mind all that much.”
She traced the contour of my brow. “That’s because she recognizes that you’re a good man, too.”
I wanted to be.
Fuck, I wanted to be.
Piper slid off the bed and wrapped herself in the blanket from earlier. “Are you coming with me?”
I sat up on the side of the bed and set my hands on the outside of her thighs. “After that? Don’t think you could get rid of me if you tried.”
“I couldn’t get rid of you when Iwastrying.” Her tease wound into the wispy ease of the encroaching night.
A chuckle skated free. “You know what they say. Persistence pays off.”
She tousled a hand through my hair. And fuck, it felt nice, those fingers dragging against my scalp. The calm that whispered around us.
She sobered, arctic eyes so warm as she gazed down at me. “I’m so happy it was you who found me. You who found us.”
