“Here’s what I want,” he said, planning on being honest. “If it’s what you want, we’ll progress. Last time, we didn’t share our plans, and we both assumed. I don’t want that to happen again.”
Graham waited.
“I am willing to quit my job to come here to live. I’ve made a lot of money over the last seven years. I can buy us a really nice place, and we can get married and have a life here. I’m willing to give you what you need because I was an idiot before.”
Graham had tears slip down his cheeks.
The‘M’word caught him off guard.
Honestly, he never thought anyone would want or love him again.
But D’Artangnan was saying that was false.
“I want to be with you, Graham. Yes, I moved on, but it was never the same. He wasn’t you. For six years, I was by myself, and I got desperate not to die alone. So, I picked someone who would‘do’, but I don’t want to settle. I’ve alwaysbeen chasing this,” he said, pointing at him. “Us, and I’ve never found it until I felt it again with you.”
Graham was holding onto that last little piece of hope. It was all he had left. He had to believe D’Artangnan wasn’t setting him up to devastate him out of revenge, but instead, being honest.
“Really?” he asked.
Michael nodded.
“I’d call Elizabeth right now and resign, except she’ll kick my ass for calling before she’s up for the day. They just got off a case, and she’s likely not awake yet.”
He knew from talking to Callen that she wasn’t.
Michael was staring into his green eyes, and he wanted to fight for Graham until the end of his days. He needed to be here for him.
They’d be each other’s heroes.
If he’d let him.
Touching his face with his warm palm, he stood before him, stripped bare, and willing to do the work to make their relationship have a different outcome this time.
Cowards ran.
And Michael was no longer a coward.
“Tell me what you want. Do you want to be with me?” Michael asked.
Graham couldn’t believe this.
This had to be a dream.
“You want to be with me, even though you know what I’ve done? What I’ve become?” Graham asked.
He lifted a brow.
Michael was confused.
“What have you become?” he asked. “To me, you’re the same man you were.”
He said one word, and it hung there.
It was powerful, but not in a good way.
“Pathetic.”
Michael didn’t move his hand from Graham’s cheek, and he didn’t break that gaze into his eyes.
