Soft lips touched a spot behind her ear, sparking a whole-body reaction. A whole-body shudder. An every-hair-on-her-body-standing-on-end thing.
She rolled to her back, holding the sheet over her chest to keep herself covered.
And there he was. Ethan lay on his side, his moss-green eyes piercing into her, so intense and so familiar.
“Hey.” Her voice was low and raspy.
His large palm now sat on her opposite hip. “Morning, Mags.”
“I don’t know what to say. I’m nervous.”
One side of his mouth kicked up. “Why?”
“I don’t know. Because we haven’t done…thatfor a long time.”
“True.” He lowered his head, his mouth hovering over hers. “I also haven’t given you a morning kiss for a while.”
He kissed her, and she breathed him in like he was air she’d been deprived of.
His hand slid down her side, and she cupped his head, parting her lips and letting him in. Letting his tongue curl around hers.
When he lifted his head, she could have cried. She wasn’t done with him, but then, she’d never kissed him and felt done before.
The smile slipped from his lips, and something more intense took its place. “We need to talk about something.”
The heat cooled in her belly. “Okay.”
“I need to know what happened that night. The entire story.”
She’d known this would come. And honestly,sheshould have initiated the conversation. She wanted there to be no secrets between them.
She sat up, her grip tight on the sheet over her chest. “That night I went to visit you in Coronado, I came from Deep River.”
He nodded, already knowing that because he’d known where she was supposed to be.
“I went to see Lilith that night.” She paused. “I was supposed to pick up some boxes of my things. But we had the biggest fight we’d ever had. She told me I was baggage. That I’d weighed herdown for the last decade. And that my mother got the easy way out when she died.”
Ethan cursed. “I could kill that woman.”
“It felt worse than any other fight because it wasn’t only about me being a worthless burden, it was about my mother. I was so upset that I just left. I left her house and Deep River and I went to see you.”
“Connor saw you.”
She nodded.
“Why didn’t you come speak to me?” he asked. “Why’d you leave?”
“I got to the bar and Lilith called. And she…she said things that I shouldn’t have believed, but I did. She made me feel like I wasn’t good enough for you. It bled into every insecurity she’d ever instilled in me. Then I walked into the bar and saw you with this beautiful, confident woman and I just…I believed it. Everything my aunt had ever said—I believed it all.”
He gripped her knee like he was scared she’d run. “Why didn’t you talk to me about it?”
“I was hurting. I wanted to break it off with you before you broke up with me. And I think a part of me thought I was doing you a favor.”
“Any woman my friends or I might have talked to that night would have been a work friend. That’s all. I never saw anyone the way I saw you, and I never will. Do you understand? I have only ever lovedyou, Maggie.”
Tears filled her eyes and she leaned forward, touching her forehead to his. “I wish I’d done things differently.”
“We’re here now. And this is where we’ll stay.”
