Her breath caught again, and he smiled that smile of his that had always made her heart skip a beat. “Yeah.” He nodded. “I know ya love me. I heard your confession that night.”
She shook her head. “But you were sound asleep.”
“I was fakin’.” He winked and then smiled even wider when she slapped his arm.
In her head, the puzzle pieces fell into place. “Sothat’swhy you broke it off the next morning.”
“I was scared.” He nodded.
“Of me?” She blinked in disbelief.
“Of myself.” When two lines appeared between her eyebrows, he explained. “My father ended up killin’ my mother for the very things that drew her to him. For her beauty, for her laugh, for her soft manner. She was desirable in every way, and he knew if he wanted her, other men did too. He couldn’t stand the thought of that. And the only way he could truly keep her to himself was to destroy her.”
She nodded. Then shook her head. “But what does that have to do with you?”
“I was never crazy ’bout anyone ’til I met you, Liza. I never felt possessive of a woman or jealous of the other men who talked to her or touched her until you came along. And thenbam!”He snapped his fingers. “Suddenly all those things I’d hoped I hadn’t inherited showed up and thatterrifiedme. I didn’t want to be like my dad.”
“You’re nothing like your father,” she declared staunchly.
“I realized that last night. Or, rather, Boss talked me around to the idea. He told me it’s normal to feel the way I do ’bout ya. Normal to want tobreak the legs and bash the heads, as Boss puts it, of the men I see lustin’ after ya. But what matters is the way I act when I’m feelin’ that way. I wouldneverthink to try to isolate ya from the world the way my father did with my mother. I would never be so afraid of losin’ ya that I’d…” He shook his head, unable to even say the words aloud.
“I know you wouldn’t, Fisher.” She framed his face as the air hung heavy with the meaning of all he’d shared.
His words were more than she’d ever dared dream of. He’d laid his heart bare before her, and she’d spend her life safeguarding it.
“I’d like to give ya that great, big BKI love ya been dreamin’ about, darlin’.” His deep voice was filled with quiet determination. “If you’ll let me.”
If I’ll let him?
If I’lllethim?!?
Was he crazy? It was a dream come true!
“I’ll let you.” She nodded, thinking of Charlie and the opportunity he’d given her. Because of him, she was going to have a chance at something amazing. A great, big BKI love, as Fisher called it.
I promise to love with everything in me, Charlie,she swore.I promise to live a life big enough that it’ll make what you did for me worth it. I promise to be happy enough for both of us.
When the tears standing in her eyes slipped over her lower lids and trailed down her cheeks, Fisher thumbed them away. He searched her gaze before his attention drifted down to her trembling lips.
“Tell me again that ya love me, darlin’. I want to hear the words when I’m not havin’ to pretendnotto hear them.”
“I love you, Fisher.”
His Adam’s apple worked in the tan column of his throat.
“I’ve never been the best at anything,” she continued, her voice shaking with the weight of her emotions. “There has always been someone smarter, someone prettier, someone funnier. But when it comes to loving you? There’s no one better than me.”
He kissed her then. Kissed her like she was his whole world. And it dawned on her she’d found in him more than just that great, big BKI love she’d been looking for. In him, she’d found her person.
Finally…
36
Fisher smiled when he heard Eliza’s soft snore.
They’d spent the day making love and making up for lost time. Now they were both exhausted. But he couldn’t sleep. Mostly because he didn’t want to miss one minute of his time with her.
Didn’t want to miss the way her head was made to fit under his chin. Didn’t want to miss the way her smooth thigh felt perfect thrown over his. Didn’t want to miss one breath or one heartbeat or one…snore.
