“I’m not much of a baker. This is the best I can do,” he answered. “I mean I could try, but the results might not be to your liking.”
“Why would you want to bake me anything?”
“You did. For me.” He shrugged as though it was that simple.
She angled her head, studying him. He looked so . . . earnest, but as she was learning with this man, nothing was simple.
“You’re not me, North. You don’t have to try to be like me.” She hesitated and then added, “You doing this won’t make any difference. I’m moving and we both know why.” She stared deeply into his eyes, trying to convey that for whatever reason he was doing this he could stop. She needed him to stop. Because resisting him wasn’t easy.
A stark look entered his eyes and then vanished. Hard determination glinted there. “Maybe I want to be a little more like you.”
She shook her head. “You’re you though. I’m not idiot enough to ask a man to change . . . to expect him to be someone he’s not.”
“Maybe I’m discovering that being what you want isn’t such a leap, after all. I’m closer to that than I realized.”
Hope warred in her chest. If only that were true. It was tempting to believe in the promise of his words. She still wanted him. That hadn’t changed just because she got enough backbone to walk away from him. She couldn’t let him sway her. He had only ever been honest with her, but right now, he was confused. Or misguided. He wasn’t looking for long term. And she was. He believed he destroyed everything he touched, that he was haunted, burdened by the past, and could never be clean enough for her.
She turned to go back inside her house.
“I want you all the time and it’s wrecking me.” His voice cracked a little behind her as he declared this.
She faced him again, her heart kicking against her ribs at this declaration. She took a deep breath and pushed it back down. “That’s only lust. Find someone else to—”
“No.” He dropped all the boxes of cookies and lunged forward, stopping just shy from touching her. “Don’t. You think if I could have moved on, I wouldn’t have? You’ve infected me, Faith—”
“So I’m a disease?” She didn’t know whether to be insulted or not.
He groaned in clear frustration. “Look. I’m not good with these kinds of things. I’ve never told a woman I love her before and I’m sorry I’m making such a mess of it.” He dragged a hand through his hair, sending the long locks spiking in different directions.
Everything inside her stilled and locked up hard. She moistened her lips and whispered, “What did you say?”
He spread his arms wide. “I love you and you might be moving, but I’m not giving up on us, Walters. I don’t care where you go. I’m going to be patient and work to convince you that—”
“You love me?” She fought hard to keep hope from overwhelming her. “What does that even mean to you, North? Do you even know?” Her voice trembled, and she had to stop herself from falling into his arms. He loved her? Could that be true?
“It means this.” He waved between them. “Us? Me standing in front of you and offering you everything I have. Me. My heart. It’s yours if you’ll have it. It’s real. It’s more than physical, Faith.” He inhaled a shaky breath, his eyes brimming with more emotion than she thought him capable of possessing. “It means I want forever with you.”
She took a step back, staggered at his words—words she never thought to hear from him.
He continued, “I’ve been out for two years, but I’ve never felt free. I’ve never felt happy except in these moments with you.” He gestured to his back fence. “I’ve found contentment when I weld, when I create things. There are times then when I can block out the world and find a quiet sort of peace doing that. But my feelings for you aren’t quiet, Faith. They’re loud and big and scary as fuck but that’s because with you I feel joy and happiness. I want that all the time. I want you to feel that way, too. Please. Tell me that you can.”
He finished his speech with a ragged breath, as though he’d run a great distance, and she supposed he had. It had been a long uphill run for him to get to this point. She knew that much about him. He was professing his love and asking for it in return.
She stepped forward and flattened a hand against his chest, directly over his heart, where it beat fierce and fast. This was not the man who, a week ago, thought himself dead inside and the ruiner of all things. This was no longer the man who blamed himself for not being able to save anyone, for not lifting a finger as others around him suffered.
He was finally stepping forward, finally willing to save himself.
She moistened her lips. “The reason I’m moving is because I do love you . . . and I can’t bear to live next door to you without—”
He killed the rest of what she was going to say by dipping his head and claiming her mouth in a hard, drugging kiss. When he came up for air, his gaze devoured her. “You love me. That’s all that matters, Faith. And as for moving . . . maybe you should sell the house.”
“I should?”
“One home makes more sense for the two of us.”
“You want us to move in together?”
One corner of his mouth kicked up. “Might as well. I don’t intend to be anywhere other than your bed every night for the rest of my life.” A flash of uncertainty crossed his face. “I mean, if you love me and if you think—”
Standing on her tiptoes, she kissed him again, letting him feel her certainty. She didn’t want to spend another night without him. One house sounded perfect.
Still kissing, they backed themselves inside her house. He kicked the door shut after her.
“The cookies!” she cried against his lips.
“Forget them. I’ll learn to bake,” he promised.
EPILOGUE
“You know, visiting hours are going to end soon.” Briar waved her fingers, gesturing that North needed to give up the baby he was holding in his arms.
North shook his head slightly, barely sparing a glance for his sister-in-law.
“North,” Faith chided, laughter in her voice.
He grimaced, knowing he needed to let Briar hold the child, but little Max was only one day old and North was having trouble letting him go.
There’d been visitors off and on all day. Uncle Mac and Aunt Alice had only just left. He felt as though he hardly had an opportunity to be with the newest member of the Callaghan family.
Knox chuckled. “There’s always tomorrow, Briar. And it’s not as though you don’t have your own baby waiting at home.”
Briar looked horrified and swatted her husband’s arm. “I’m not leaving here without holding my nephew. Now give him up, North.”
“Go on,” Faith coaxed him from where she reclined on the hospital bed, looking radiant after giving birth to their son the day before. “It’s okay. You’ll be holding him a lot in the years ahead.”
He carefully passed his small son into Briar’s waiting arms and then moved beside his wife. Bending, he pressed a tender kiss to her lips.
A year ago he would not have imagined he could be this blessed. His brother and Reid might have found happiness and love, but he had thought such things could never be his. The love of a woman. Fatherhood. Happiness.
“That won’t be enough,” he said. “Holding him . . . and you. I won’t ever get enough of it.”
She grinned. “Good. Because you’re going to be doing it forever.”
His chest swelled on a breath as he gazed down at his beautiful wife. “Forever is exactly what I want.”
About the Author
SOPHIE JORDAN grew up in the Texas hill country where she wove fantasies of dragons, warriors, and princesses. A former high school English teacher, she’s the New York Times, USA Today, and internationally bestselling author of more than twenty novels. She now lives in Houston with her family. When she’s not writing, she spends her time overloading on caffeine (lattes preferred), talking plotlines with anyone who will listen (inclu
ding her kids), and cramming her DVR with anything that has a happily-ever-after. You can visit her online at www.sophiejordan.net.
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By Sophie Jordan
The Devil’s Rock Series
Fury on Fire
Hell Breaks Loose
All Chained Up
Historical Romances
While the Duke Was Sleeping
All the Ways to Ruin a Rogue
A Good Debutante’s Guide to Ruin
How to Lose a Bride in One Night
Lessons from a Scandalous Bride
Wicked in Your Arms
Wicked Nights With a Lover
In Scandal They Wed
Sins of a Wicked Duke
Surrender to Me
One Night With You
Too Wicked to Tame
Once Upon a Wedding Night
Copyright
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously and are not to be construed as real. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, organizations, or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.
fury on fire. Copyright © 2017 by Sharie Kohler. All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the nonexclusive, nontransferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, downloaded, decompiled, reverse-engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins Publishers.
EPub Edition FEBRUARY 2017 ISBN: 9780062423764
Print Edition ISBN: 9780062423757
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