“I’m… I’m sorry,” she sighed, “I guess I’m just… exhausted. Maybe,” she drew in a deep, lung-filing breath and finished her thought, “you might not want to be around me right now. I might be less than… less than…”
She sagged with exhaustion, her arms dropping limp to her sides and her head dropped forward.
“I don’t even know what to say.”
“That’s okay, Harm.”
She felt his arms surrounding her a moment before her forehead touched his chest.
He leaned her into his embrace and didn’t do much more than hold her.
It was enough
Actually, it was more than enough.
It felt good to be held by him.
It felt good to be understood, at least she felt like he understood her, which was the biggest mystery of it all.
“Saint?”
She felt him go still with his arms around her.
“There’s still time for you to walk away and forget that you got this close.”
He loosened his arms from around her and she held back the sudden urge to reach out and grab him. To hold on like she couldn’t bear to let go.
And in her panic she understood that she didn’t want to let go.
Even more, she didn’t want him to let go of her.
His hands touched her face, his palms cradled her cheeks, and turned her face up to his.
“I’m not going to walk away from you, Harm. That would be the worst decision I could ever make.”
She tried to draw back from him, but couldn’t. It wasn’t that his hands held her tight enough to hurt.
He held her still and warmed her.
How? She’d never know.
He held her and looked into her eyes.
It wasn’t as uncomfortable as she would have imagined. Instead, it felt… intimate.
“I’m not walking away from you, Harm. From us.”
“I… I’m difficult. You know that.” She hated saying the words, but she felt like it was better to say it than let him decide what to do with the facts.
“I’ve got a bad reputation with women,” he raised his brows. “Don’t you want me to walk away?”
She shook her head, but the movement was hardly anything with his hold on her, but she could still speak.
“The last thing I want you to do, is to walk away from me…”
If he hadn’t had his hands on her, holding her, she might have turned her back and locked herself in her room.
“I just don’t want you to regret it.”
