“More than anything.”
Something inside me cracked open at the sincerity in his voice.The emotion.The care.No one had ever spoken to me like this.With desire wrapped in restraint.With patience that didn’t feel performative.
“But I need your trust first,” he continued.“Need you to believe me when I say I’m not keeping you here to imprison you.I understand why you’re skeptical about taking my word for it.If I were in your shoes, I would be, too.But my offer of protection isn’t a trap.If I could ensure your safety, I’d happily let you go.Let you live the life you deserve.But Victor’s still out there.He paid dangerous men a lot of money to find you.And if something happened to you because I let you walk away, I’d never forgive myself.
“I hope you’ll eventually come to understand my actions aren’t to control you.I just… I care about you, Ariana.More than I thought possible.But I want you tochooseme.Not because you feel any sort of obligation to me.But because you trust me.So until that happens, I’ll wait.”
I stared at him, my throat tight.His words hit somewhere deep, somewhere that hadn’t felt warmth in a long time.I wanted to trust him.Wanted to let myself believe he wasn’t like Victor.But wanting and being able to were two very different things.
“It’s hard for me,” I admitted.“Victor… He said all the right things, too.”
“I’m not him.Even if I can be…a little overbearing.”
“A little?”I retorted playfully, arching an eyebrow.
“Okay.More than a little,” he said with a self-deprecating laugh.“You bring out a side of me I didn’t know existed.And it’s not because I want to own or possess you, show you off as a trophy.It’s because I can’t stomach the idea of not having you in my life.”
He reached out and cupped my cheek again, his touch gentle.Reverent.
“It doesn’t matter how long it takes for you to realize what I’m saying is true,” he murmured.“A week.A month.A lifetime.I won’t give up.Won’t stop trying to earn your trust.Earnyou.”
I fought back the tears forming in my eyes.For so long, I’d done everything in my power to hide all my emotions.Victor would only use them against me.
But with Henry, I felt like I could let him see all my fractured pieces.
Just like he’d allowed me to see allhisbroken pieces.
“I don’t know if I’d gothatfar,” I retorted in a shaky breath.“Youareover forty.I’m not sure how many good years you have left.”
His laughter cut through the tension like sunlight breaking through the clouds, bathing everything in light once more.
“Am I always going to have to put up with the age jokes?”
“And if you are?”
“I can handle it.”
He flashed me a wink, then turned back toward the path, as if he hadn’t just cracked himself open and handed me everything inside to do with as I pleased.
“So landscape architecture.”He cleared his throat.“Tell me about it.”
“What do you want to know?”I asked, catching up to him.
“Everything, Ariana.”His gaze locked on mine, his eyes filled with an emotion I was too scared to label.“I want to know everything about you.”
And for the first time in years, I wanted someone to know everything about me.
So I did the one thing I didn’t think I’d ever be able to do again.
I let him in.
ChapterNineteen
Ariana
I couldn’t remember ever being this at peace.
For years, I dreaded waking up in the morning.
