Page 63 of Her Christmas Wish

Don’t walk away from me.

It was the second time in recent weeks that he’d heard the words.

Turning around, a shadow in the dark, on the long-deserted beach, Gray looked for something within himself to grasp hold of. To steer him.

Still in front of her near-acre of property, he stared at her. “I won’t,” he heard himself say. Yearning to be heard. And reeling from the possible lie he was telling. Moving in closer to her, he cupped her face with both hands. “I promise, Sage. I won’t ever walk away from you again.”

She might leave. They might both turn their backs on the friendship they were trying to build. But that promise, come hell or worse than hell, he would keep it.

Only just beginning to understand the damage he’d done to her by walking out two days before their wedding...

He’d been saving them both from love turning to hate. From disappointment. Arguments. Resentments. Walls. Inevitable divorce.

His course had been so clear to him.

And nothing was clear anymore.

“I’m sorry,” he whispered, holding her face, but not moving in for more. “I’m so sorry.”

“For what?”

He wasn’t sure. All of it. “For not being what you need,” he said. “For not figuring it all out sooner.”

“Gray...” Her whisper floated away on the wind before he could hear intention in the tone.

“I’m sorry for loving you so selfishly, and for accepting your love, for letting you love me...” Maybe the stiff scotch had loosened his tongue. It hadn’t rattled his brain.

The words had been there a long time.

Needing to be said.

Sage’s hands flew up to Gray’s as he started to let go of her. She held his hands against her, staring up at him. “You didn’t let me love you, Gray. You had absolutely no say in that matter. The choice was mine.” Her words came with all the strength she had in her.

“You don’t get to take that away from me,” she said more softly, as he stared down at her.

Standing there, so close, with the rest of their bodies not touching, those seconds were everything. And not enough.

“Loving you then...helped grow me into the woman I am now.” She was staring at his lips. Didn’t want to look away.

Gray wasn’t moving. He just stood there, staring at her, his expression still holding pain. A lot of it. And she leaned forward. Doing what a woman did.

She put her lips to his, to kiss the pain away.

After that...everything was a blur. Her hands dropped Gray’s to slide around his neck. To hold him close while their lips said other things that had to be said.

And did so in ways they both seemed to need. And to understand.

Her mouth opened first. Or his did. Didn’t matter. They both had tongues reaching for each other, and when they met again, she felt Gray’s tension ease into something much more welcome.

More pleasurable.

In that kiss they bridged the pain with which they’d left each other, back into the joy they’d once found in each other, and Sage hadn’t found enough of it yet.

They fell to their knees together. And down to their sides, lips still touching. Even as top lips parted enough to gasp for air, bottom lips still touching.

Tongues continuing the conversation.

Her breasts strained for his touch, hurting to the point that she took his hand and placed it over her nipple, showing him her need. He knew exactly what to do. She’d shown him years before.