He lifted his head and frowned, grazing a lock of hair from her cheek. “What’s wrong?”
“Nothing, I just…I need to ask you something.No, not ask, tell. I need to tell you something.”
His lips twitched. “Okay.”
“I’m going to The Tea House’s reopening.”
The smile dropped. “No.”
“Yes.”
“No.”
“Jesse—”
“You’ve invited the entire damn town to that thing. The place will be crawling with people, and it will be too hard to maintain a visual on you.”
“But it won’t. You’ll be there, and so will your brother and Holden. And you all know what Dylan looks like.”
“No.”
Goddammit.
“Fine.” She pushed to her feet and got two steps away before strong fingers wrapped around her wrist and tugged her down on top of him.
She gasped, straddling his hips.
“Aspen.” He cupped her cheek. “Ineedto keep you safe. That need is so strong, even thethoughtof having you near crowds makes me want to drag you back here and lock the door. Is that healthy? Probably not. Do I care? Hell no. Dylan almostkilledthe last woman he was obsessed with.”
“I know that. I think about it every day. I think aboutMargot’s bodyevery time I close my eyes. But I also don’t want to hide. We don’t know how long this will go on. I need to live my life.” And hiding meant he won, right?
Jesse’s jaw clicked. He wasn’t happy, and dammit, she didn’t want to make him unhappy. But this was important.
She skimmed her hands down his shirt. “What about a compromise? We stay for an hour. I help Mrs. Gerald, make sure the event’s going well, hand out some cakes. And you don’t take your eyes off me.”
His brows slashed together, something akin to pain in his eyes.
This time she cuppedhischeek, his day-old stubble scratching her palm. “Please. One hour.”
His forehead lowered to hers, his eyes closing. His chest rose and fell before he said, “Okay.”
“Really?”
His head lifted. “I’d do anything for you. You know that, right?”
His brown eyes beamed into hers, the gold specks standing out like stars in a dark sky. God, he was beautiful. And this beautiful man cared about her. Wanted toprotecther.
“I love you.” The words fell from her lips. It was like the fear just vanished. Shelovedhim. She loved him so much that she needed those words out in the world. She needed to give them to him.
His fingers tightened on her hips, his eyes darkening. “Say it again.”
“I love you, Jesse Hayes. For a while, I stopped believing in love. I stopped believing in the goodness of men. But you…you areallgood, and you reminded me that love exists.” She shifted her gaze between his eyes. “You don’t need to say it back, I just—”
“I love you too.”
Her body seized and the air in her lungs got stuck. He loved her. This beautiful, selfless man, who’d entered her life when she’d needed him most,lovedher. “Really?”
“I love everything about you, Aspen. Even the things you think are unlovable.” Then his mouth crashed to hers.
