Page 100 of Charlie and Her Sweet Escape
And thenot quitewas enough of a wedge for me to truly see Greg for who he was: a selfish manipulator. The exact opposite of Bennett. I didn’t know if Bennett would be able to find me, even with my clues, but I knew he’d never stop trying. And I wasn’t going to leave until he did. Period.
Bennett continued. “He came to base camp to get you.”
I gave an annoyed grunt in response. Super ladylike and sexy. But I’d been lying on a bed of spider moss in a freaking bear cave in the woods for three nights. The sexy ship had sailed.
The sexy ship had not sailed for Bennett, on the other hand. The rugged mountain man look was working for him. It made me want to take up drawing in my journal again.
“Charlie,” he said, and hearing my name in his mouth sent a shiver through me. He tipped my chin up so he could see my face. “Why didn’t you go with him?”
My mouth curled in disgust. Greg had made it sound like I was obligated to come back, since he’d come all this way. Well, no one had asked him to. “Why would I?”
“To get the money for your mom. To have everything you want.”
I repositioned myself with both forearms on his shoulders, my fingers scraping against his scalp, my hands lost in his beautiful hair. “Listen to me, Bennett Forrester,” I said fiercely, holding his head firm. “Youare everything I want. I love you.”
His eyes widened, so I said it again. “I. Love. You.” It felt good to say what I really felt, to be bold, to confidently state what I wanted. “I think I wanted theideaof Greg and the life he represented more than I actually wantedhim.”
“The money, though.”
“We’ll figure it out. People pay off bills without selling their souls all the time.”
“We’ve only sold fifty percent of our souls, so we can still recover,” he teased lightly, before turning serious again. “I can’t give you what Greg could.”
“No. You can give me so much more.” I held his face in my hands, and brushed my thumbs along his cheekbones, marveling that he was here. “I’ve been poor before, Ben. It won’t break me. But being without you? That will.”
His eyes filled with emotion. He lifted me at the waist, and I wrapped my legs around him. It brought me up to his eye level, where he studied me with a soft expression. “I was worried you’d left.”
“But you still didn’t give up,” I whispered.
“I’d go to the ends of the earth for you, Charlie.”
“I’ll never make you do that.” I kissed one side of his cheek and then the other. “I’ll never leave.”
He let out a long, shuddering breath. “I love you, Charlie. More than I ever imagined it could be possible to love someone.” Then he kissed me again and again, until we fell onto the bed of moss, laughing and crying and not letting each other go.
“Should we tap out?” Bennett said.
We were lying beside each other, and I was using his arm as a pillow. His fingers dragged a slow, lazy trail along my forehead and temple as he tucked a strand of hair behind my ear.
“Yes,” I said, relief whooshing out at the suggestion. I wasdonewith the show interfering in our lives. “I’m so ready.”
“Me, too.” He kissed my temple. “Let’s go home, pal.”
“Nope! Veto.” I poked him in the side, digging in deeper when he let out a shout and squirmed away. So hewasticklish. This was dangerous information for me to have, especially since he loved to tickle me. I danced my fingers playfully into his side as he laughed. “What have I said about pet names?”
He grabbed me around the waist and pulled me on top of him, silencing our laughter with a kiss. “What if what I want to say to you, I can’t say in front of the camera?” he murmured close to my ear.
Hmmm.I basically purred against his neck. “I’ll allow it. For censorship purposes.”
“We must think of the children,” he said.
“And our families all watching this,” I muttered.
He laughed, then kissed me thoroughly until I was nothing but jelly in his arms. Our families would just have to deal with that. I’d been dreaming of this reunion nonstop, and it was even better than I had expected. But that was just Bennett—he somehow madeeverythingbetter than I could ever imagine.
Way too soon, he grabbed his backpack and unzipped it. “Do you want to do the honors?”
“Let’s do it together,” I said. The same way I hoped we’d do everything from here on out.
