That truth rattled through me like a bullet.
It was too much.
I was unraveling.
Tears welled in my eyes again and I stormed past him, into the house. A million incoherent thoughts raced through my head as I crossed the living room. I wasn’t only pissed; it waseverything.Phoenix, the kiss—that kiss—the feelings, the fact that he is myclient. Then, Josh showing up at my door. Then, the fight, like two vicious dogs. All capped off with Phoenix’s words—she’s mine.
Biting back the tears, I yanked the first aid kit from below the kitchen sink, an ice-pack from the freezer, then stalked back into the living room.
Phoenix was standing in the doorway.
“Come in.” I snapped.
The front door shut quietly. I avoided eye contact as I jerked my chin to the couch, where he obediently sat. I ripped open an antiseptic wipe, dropped to my knees and focused on his face—everything but his piercing gaze that would surely send me into another sobbing mess.
“Here.” I shoved the ice pack at him. “Put this on your stupid jaw.”
I wiped the cut on his cheek and the blood around it. My chin began to quiver as the image of Josh slamming his fist into Phoenix’s head flashed through my mind.
“Hey,” Phoenix whispered.
“No,” I snapped.“No.”
Hands trembling, I tore open a butterfly stitch and applied it to his cheek, a skill I’d picked up thanks to the dozen times I’d done it to myself growing up.
“Hey,” he whispered again.
I clenched my jaw, keeping my focus on his wounds. One look and I’d break. I knew it.
His hands slowly, gently, pulled mine down and away from his face. He kissed a knuckle, then another, then another.
“Rose. Please look at me.”
A tear slid down my cheek as I finally looked into his eyes.
“I love you.”
My heart froze. Breath, words, escaped me.
“I love you, Rose.”
He squeezed my hands, pulled me to him, and kissed me.
I love you, Rose.
Phoenix Steele loved me.
Tears spilled down my cheeks as I kissed him back. I grabbed at him, at anything, kissing desperately with a voracity that had my pulse skyrocketing.
I love you,I thought,I love you, too.
And I did. I was absolutely, totally, one-hundred percent, head-over-heels for Phoenix Steele.
He dropped to the floor with me, two arms enveloping me in a warm blanket that pulled me away from the swirling chaos and into a safe zone that melted away every fear, question, irrational thought. The man could simply dissolve me. Strip me naked where there was nowhere else to hide.
Like no one had ever done before.
Wrapped in his arms, I pulled away from the kiss.
