Page 38 of Phantom’s Mate

Finally, the sun sank below the mountains, and the colors faded to blues and grays. The dragons flew back to the castle, but the memory of their beauty was seared in Britt’s brain.

She turned to Nick. “That was… I don’t even have the words. Thank you so much for bringing me here. I never thought I’d see anything as beautiful and magical as that.”

“Neither did I,” Nick said, but he was looking at her. She caught her breath.

He leaned in and kissed her, his lips lingering on hers, and then he said, “Time for dinner. I don’t want DB’s hard work to go to waste.”

The dinner was as exquisite as the flight show, but all Britt could think about was Nick. His nearness, the masculine scent of him, the intensity of his gaze and the warmth of his touch as his knee grazed hers under the table, or his fingers brushed her arm.

When they were finished, Nick poured them more champagne and they moved to the couch. Britt felt like her whole body was humming with need and desire.

She snuggled up next to Nick, her shoes off and her knees tucked up under the curve of his arm. “You haven’t talked much about your sister,” he said. “How are you feeling? I know you’re excited about finding her, but it must be hard that you never got to meet her.”

“It is,” Britt said. The thought did make her sad, but she wanted to talk about it with Nick. “I really wanted to. So much. Even though… well, she’s married. So it’s not like really having someone all my own.”

Someone who would put her first.

“You had Chaz,” Nick said, an unspoken question in his voice.

She gave a little snort. “Chaz. Right.” Nick waited, and she said, “I think… maybe that’s one reason I was so desperate to find my sister. Unfinished business desperate. I had this fantasy that she would be the best friend I never had, the person I could totally confide in, who I wouldn’t ever have to put on an act for.”

“Because Chaz wasn’t that person.”

She shook her head. “And somewhere inside I knew that, so I was looking for someone else to be special to. I keep thinking, maybe that’s all this was—a selfish desire to have something for me. Not to do something for her.”

“You really believe that?”

She shrugged.

“I don’t,” Nick said. “I think you thought about your little sister and wanted her to know that she’s loved—that you loved her, even though you hadn’t met her yet. That even if she grew up thinking she didn’t mean anything to your mother, she meant something to you.”

He shifted in his seat to face her, and cupped her chin in his hand so she would look him in the eyes. “You are a beautiful person who cares about other people. You have no idea how much you’ve done for me.”

“I wish I could do more for you,” she said. “I wish I could make you happy. You’re… I don’t even know how to say it.”

But she did, she realized. She was just scared. All her life she’d been scared to open up, and now that she was dead she was still living with that fear.

She put down her glass and climbed over onto his lap, straddling him so she could look right into his face. “I’m gonna do this. And it’s hard, so you can’t interrupt.”

She took a deep breath. “You are the kind of guy I always fantasized about, and never thought I’d find. Not just tall and dark and hot as fuck—you’re kind and caring, strong and selfless.”

“Not selfless, for sure,” he said. “You’re thinking about the wrong guy.”

“Oh, no,” she told him. “You do not get to deflect this. You’re going to take it all in.”

She kissed him. “You spent your life trying to make the world a little bit of a better place, for people who didn’t even know you existed. You lost your life on one of those missions. And then you stayed around because you felt like your friends needed you. Brandon needed you.”

He still wasn’t buying into it. “You don’t even know how pissed off I get. What a dick I am to people. How bad I want them in my life, and how I shove them away when I get them. How selfish I really am.”

“Everybody wants things, Nick. Everyone gets angry. But when push comes to shove, you make the choices you think are right for other people. The people you care about, and even the ones you don’t know. Doing right by them matters to you.”

She put her hands on his shoulders. “Whatever your flaws might be, you fight them every day so you can do the right thing. You’re my hero, even if you don’t think you’re one. I respect you. And I love you.”

He closed his eyes, his jaw bunching as he clenched it. She could feel the emotions welling up in him—emotions he was still trying to hold back.

He pulled her in and kissed her, gently at first, then with growing passion until they were naked amidst the covers, firelight dancing on their skin, making love in a way that touched the heart of what was between them—sorrow, pain, anger, passion, wonder, joy—and love.

Chapter 18