“I love you, Momma. But I need to go now.”
I need to pull up my big-girl panties and finally come clean like you told me to.
“I love you too. And remember what your daddy always said: keep a weather eye out.”
“And hang tough,” they both finished in unison. “I will. I promise,” Chelsea added. With that, her mother said good-bye and the phone went dead.
Chelsea thumbed off the cell and shoved it into her back pocket. Her reprieve was over. Time to face the music.
Blood-thunder. That was the sound in her ears as she took a deep breath. “Z, I—”
“Is it true?” He cut her off. He was doing his eerily still shtick.
“Is what true?” she asked, but she already knew. Her mother had let the cat out of the bag. There was no way to shove the little shit back in.
“Have I stolen your heart?”
She could have lied to him, she supposed. But there were already too many lies between them. So she gave him the truth, as plain and as unvarnished as she could make it. “You didn’t need to steal it. I willingly gave it to you a long time ago.”
Chapter 34
Dagan had spent the last handful of years keeping his heart encased in Kevlar. But Chelsea’s confession blew through the protective armor and pierced deep.
She loves me! Chelsea Duvall loves me!He couldn’t fathom it. And yet, the proof was there in her copper-colored eyes, shining up at him as brightly as a promise, as sweetly as a dream.
Pulling her into his arms, he buried his nose in her hair, loving the way it tickled his cheeks. She wiggled against him, trying to escape, but he just tightened his hold. Now that he had her,reallyhad her, he had no intention of letting go.
She loved him. He loved her. As for anything else? Well, love conquered all, right? They could work it out. Together they could overcome anything.
“Chelsea,” he whispered into her hair. “Babe, if only you could take my heart out and look at it. It’s covered in scars. There are scars from those I’ve lost. Scars from the times I’ve failed. And…a big ol’ scar from you.”
“Me?”
“Yeah. The scar from where you wiggled your way inside.”
He was prepared for a lot of things after that admission. What he wasn’t prepared for was Chelsea falling apart. She’d always been so stubborn, so tough, and seemingly unbreakable. But as she clung to him, her entire body shaking, he realized that what he had long suspected was true. At Chelsea’s core, she was as soft and tender as a butterfly. Someone to be cherished. Someone to be protected.
“You’ve always made me the best version of myself.” He palmed the back of her head, loving how it was a perfect fit, as if she’d been made just for him. “With you, I can let down my guard. I can’t do that with anyone else. Not even with Avan. Chels, you have always been like…hometo me.”
Saying the words out loud made him realize just how true they were. No matter what, he had always run to her, depended on her,reliedon her. Wasn’t she the one who had helped him figure out what Senator Aldus had really been up to? Hadn’t she always had his back, even when he hadn’t been worthy of her loyalty?
She loves me! Chelsea Duvall loves me!
“Dagan.” Her voice was muffled by his sweater. But hearing her call him by name had never sounded so sweet. “I—”
“Chels,” he interrupted, scared that she was going to bring up the past or the future again before he had a chance to arrange his thoughts on the subjects. Before he had a chance to think about what he wanted to say. “I believe that love is the strongest force on the planet. I believe that it really can conquer all. Do you?”
“Ofcourse, but—”
“No buts. I know you want to talk about things. I do too. But for right now, would you just let me hold you? Will you stop thinking, stop scrutinizing and analyzing, and just allow us this moment?”
He desperately wanted time to wallow in the knowledge that she loved him, bumps and bruises, scars and warts and all, before reality and the past—or the future—came crashing in.
“Tall order.” She sniffed. “Iaman analyst, after all. Thinking and scrutinizing comes with the territory. But, okay. I can give it the ol’ college try. It’s just that… No, no. Never mind. I was about to start analyzing again.Damnit.This is harder than I thought. Maybe we should…but no. That’s more scrutinizing. Please help me stop talking, will you? I can’t do it on my own.” There was genuine pleading in her voice, and something more that he couldn’t put his finger on.
“It’s an easy enough problem to solve,” he assured her. “All it takes is an ultimatum.”
“An ultimatum?”
