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“It’s not fine if it makes you uncomfortable,” she whispered, her fingers clutching my shirt, her forehead dropping to my collarbone. “They shouldn’t go throwing around the L-word like that.”
I heard the emotion wavering in her voice. It reached inside my soul and tipped me right over the edge.
I dropped my lips to her head. “No,” I agreed. “That was for me to do first.”
Her breath caught as my words sank in. Slowly, she lifted her gaze to meet mine with a thousand questions in her eyes.
I nodded, silently answering her.
“Say it,” she whispered. “I need to hear you say it first.”
I squeezed my eyes shut for a moment, fighting the sudden burn, before I opened them again, knowing I was about to dive off the cliff I swore I’d never jump off again. But she was the one I was willing to do it for. “I love you, Olivia. So damn much.”
A small cry escaped her and she covered her mouth as tears filled her eyes. Suddenly, she threw herself on me, wrapping her legs around my waist and her arms around my neck, holding on much like Elizabeth had earlier. “I never thought I’d hear those words from a man again in my life. I never thought I’d want to.” Now the tears were falling freely down her cheeks, and she was laughing. “But I do. And I love you, too.” She laughed louder, making me laugh too. “Wow. Is this real?”
“Oh, it’s real, baby.” I pressed a kiss to her jaw, then her lips, and proceeded to show her just how real it was.
Twenty-Four
Olivia
“Oh my God, I’m shaking,” I said as he lay above me with our hands clasped and my arms stretched above my head, his hard length poised at my entrance.
He dropped his head and kissed my jaw. “I’ve got you. I’ll always have you.”
Tears leaked from my eyes; I was a ball of raw emotion that was out of my control.
He loved me. How had that happened?
I wanted to believe him—I did believe him—but a tiny part of me was holding on to doubt. I’d had the rug pulled out from under me before, and Justin was nothing if not too good to be true. I knew that in my head. But my heart... that crazy organ had given up the fight long ago, cashed in its chips, and was all in.
“Tell me again,” I whispered.
He drew back and his ice-blue eyes peered right into my soul. “I love you. More than I have ever loved any other person in this world. More than I ever will again.”
I bit my lip as hot tears flooded my eyes. Unable to speak, I just nodded, hoping that he understood my silent words.
He didn’t seem to need my response as he gently kissed me, pressing forward until he was seated as deep into my body as he could be, making us one.
We kissed with the quiet assurance of two people whose hearts had finally found each other as we slowly rocked with each other. It was unhurried, it was sensual, it was healing. It was everything.
He told me in a hundred ways with his body how he felt about me, and I did my best to say it back. We went to new heights, reaching our peak together in a strangled cry, our faces buried in each other’s throats.
He rolled off me and tucked me close into his side and we fell asleep with the scent of our lovemaking heavy in the air and the wind whipping heavy against the window as a storm brewed outside... but I knew it couldn’t get to me as long as I was in his arms.
I squinted against the sudden onslaught of brightness.
I surveyed my surroundings, not sure where I was. There was a small grove of trees and a stone bench. Not a place I knew, still something about this place felt familiar.
My eyes were drawn by soft feminine laughter and...
My heart froze, then began to pound in my chest. It couldn’t be.
“Claire?”
She turned to me, a vision in white, with a glorious smile in her spectacular green eyes. “Hi, Livvie!” she said, using the childhood name she’d had for me. “I’ve missed you!”
“Oh!” I tried to run her way, but my feet were stuck, and I made no forward progress.