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“Why? I’m not doing anything special.”

Thea leaned forward the slightest bit. “Because you’re trustworthy. You don’t know how rare that is. I trusted you from the beginning, even though I shouldn’t have. I still wanted to trust you when all the evidence said you were guilty.” She pushed her fingers through her hair again before settling back against the couch, closer to him than before. “It didn’t make sense, but everything inside me said you were safe. And you were. You were my safe place. Not trusting you in the end was a mistake.”

Apparently, talking about the past and everything they’d had before was going to twist his guts up on a regular basis. His hand on her waist gripped a little tighter. “I’m the one who messed it up.”

Thea shook her head. “Not at all. It was always meant to fail, but I just made it quicker.” She sat up straighter and stretched her arms above her head. “Would it bother you if I took a shower? It takes me forever with my injured ankle, and I’m getting tired.”

Brett eased her feet from his lap to the floor and stood, offering her both hands. She swayed a little when she rose, and he steadied her with a hand on each arm. When she found her balance and looked up at him, he wasn’t ready to let go.

She was standing so close, and his breaths came in deep swells. He knew the feel of her lips on his, and it was more than a dream. It was a memory preserved in amber.

Leaning down to kiss her would be as natural as breathing. Nothing in the world existed except her. Nothing else mattered.

That was how he knew with all certainty that she was the one. Thea had always been the goal–the future he’d always wanted. It didn’t exist without her beside him.

He didn’t dare move. One step toward her would give him all he’d ever wanted. One step away would crush him.

Then, he felt it–her hands on his waist, moving up his sides, leaving a trail of fire in their wake.

No, loving her wasn’t as natural as breathing.

He loved Thea more than the basic needs of his body because the air in his lungs had disappeared.

He took a half step toward her, and her hands wrapped from his sides to his chest–the only thing keeping their bodies from being flush against each other. His hand slid up her arm and over her shoulder, trailing a slow path up the sides of her neck until his fingertips found their way into the hair at the base of her neck.

His forehead rested against hers, and his nose brushed against her cheek as he dipped toward her lips. The breath that had vacated his lungs came back in a rush as she tilted her head back, lining up her lips with his.

The rumble of an engine outside stopped him, and his eyes flew open, perfectly in line with hers.

“Act like she isn’t here,” Brett said. She was so close that his lips brushed against her as he spoke.

“She’ll be walking through the door in seconds. She always runs from the truck to the cabin,” Thea whispered.

“I don’t care. She can wait outside.”

“She can’t wait outside,” Thea whisper-screamed.

Brett’s grip on her hair tightened, and his voice was low and gravely. “Why are we not kissing right now? She’s still outside.”

A small gasp let him know she was just as affected as he was.

Good.

Every second he wasn’t kissing her was torture.

“Because we’ve been trying to decide what to do now that Hadley is home.”

Hadley’s steps were quick on the wooden porch just before the door flung open. “Someone turned it on frostbite out there. Whew!”

Thea’s hands slid from his chest. Apparently, she’d been gripping his shirt because the wrinkles were front and center when she stepped away from him.

Hadley flopped her hood back and shook her hair out. Totally oblivious to the wreckage of the major kiss that was so close to happening.

He couldn’t feel his fingers anymore.

Hadley was most definitely not getting a Christmas present from him this year.

“What’s up?” Hadley asked.