Page 123 of Ship Wrecked

She wanted forever.

“Here’s the more important bit, though.” Tipping his head, he rested his forehead against hers and wiped away yet more of her tears. “Even if I did truly want the part, three years would still be too long to spend away from you. Because I’d miss you terribly, which I know for certain, since even a week apart felt like fuckingdying. And because you need me here, and I need you happy. I need you with me. I need you mine, Maria. I love you so much. I’m...hollowwithout you.”

She sobbed out loud, the sound a tearing ache in her throat, an explosion of unspeakable relief mixed with stomach-churning dread. Because all the godshelpher, what if she’d misheard or somehow gotten it wrong? What would she do then? How would she survive it if she truly believed he’d handed her everything she wanted, but she’d fooled herself yet again, betrayed and broken her own heartyet again, when she fuckingknewbetter?

What if she had to watch him leave her? Stand there and try to breathe while he set her aside like an unwanted gift?

His own eyes grew wet, and he shuddered against her with his next breath.

“Sweetheart, please. Fuck, please don’t cry. Not over me, noteveragain. I can’t take it.” His voice was hoarse now. Ravaged. “I wish I’d gotten my head out of my ass sooner. I’m so sorry I hurt you.”

She squeezed her eyes shut and tried her best to believe, but it was sohard.

“You were right. Baby, please listen to me and stop crying.” He buried his fingers in her hair and curled them into possessive fists, and she sobbed again, harder, because he wasn’t leaving her, and he wasn’t letting her leave either. “You were right, and it’ll be fine. We’ll be fine. We’ll begreat. There are plenty of movies and shows that film in LA. They might be smaller roles, some of them, but they’ll be enough to keep us afloat, with our savings and residuals.”

But staying afloat wouldn’t pay his property taxes or Community Association fees.

“The h-house...” she managed to choke out.

“Is a fucking chunk of wood and stone.” The anger roughening his tone wasn’t for her, she knew. He’d turned all that raw emotion, all that frustration and rage, against himself. “It’s not more important than you. Nothing on this motherfuckingplanetis more important than you. Not work, not this house, not this neighborhood, not some stupid bullshit from my past.”

Okay, but he was in the middle of accommodating stupid bullshit fromherpast. He wasn’t being fair to himself. A few deep breaths, then a few more, and she managed to calm down enough to say just that without another round of hysterical weeping getting in the way.

Flattening her hands on his chest, she took a final shuddering breath and stepped into his body. “Sötnos—”

“I have nothing to prove to my father, or to casting agents, or to anyone. Except you, Maria.” His fists tightened in her hair the slightest bit, and the tug spiked lightning down her spine. “However long it takes, I’ll prove that you can trust me.”

Fy fan, for a taciturn man, he certainly could talk a lot.

His words were such a balm on her aching heart, though, and she let them soak in. Let herself relax her vigilance, stop fighting the immensity of her love for him, and—believe.

“I’ll never leave you,” he told her, a vow as solemn as any she’d heard in a church. “I’ll never set you aside. I’ll never betray your faith in me. I’ll always listen when you tell me what you need. And I’ll always, always, want you. Please trust me.”

Peter, the proudest man she knew, was pleading with her. Pleadingforher.

She couldn’t stand it.

So when he finally took another breath, she seized her moment. “I do. Idotrust you.”

The desperation furrowing his tired face didn’t diminish, so she kept talking.

“You don’t lie to me.” Even when it would have behooved him to do so, because he’d sometimes been a real dick in their early days together. “You’veneverlied to me. Except when you pretended very unconvincingly to be sick all those years ago. And even then, you’re normally such a fantastic actor, I have to believe you intended to get caught.”

“Not consciously. I’m just really bad at faking things off camera.” His lips tipped upward the tiniest bit, then flattened again. “But yeah, on some level, I probably wanted you to know I was trying to keep you safe. I’ve loved you for a long, long time, Maria.”

“I could say the same.” She stroked his chest. “Peter, you’re being too hard on yourself. If you need to have a lot of money tucked away or feel better living in this zip code, so be it. I can deal with that, as long as you’re with me.”

His eyes brightened, and the heart thundering under her palm slowed a fraction.

“I owe you an apology too.” Brushing a kiss over the wrinkled fabric beside her hand, she rested her face there for a moment. “Right before you arrived, I was thinking about how long a separation I could actually handle, and I think . . . I think severalmonths would be okay. The time it would take to film an average movie. So you’d have work options outside Hollywood too, at least once a year, and so would I. It doesn’t have to be all or nothing, and I’m sorry I didn’t realize that earlier and tell you so.”

The solid warmth under her cheek shifted as he exhaled slowly.

She raised her head, studying the softening lines of his beloved face. “I might go visit my family if you’d be gone that long and I wasn’t working on my own project. Or I could come stay with you and explore wherever your shoot is based.”

“I’d love that. But if you need to be in LA while I’m on location, I’ll come see you whenever I can, for as long as I can—and if you land a role that’ll keepyouaway from home for long, I’ll come stay wherever you’re filming whenever I’m between jobs. That’s a promise.” Ducking down, he slid his nose alongside hers in a sweet caress, although his voice remained decisive. Hard with resolve as he laid out his plans for meeting her needs and making her happy. “And we’ll only accept work outside LA if and when we both agree it’s okay. Either one of us can say no for any reason, no explanation needed. Deal?”

If she knew she could always say no, would she find it easier to let him go?

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