“I’m scared.” My voice cracks and my eyes pool with tears.
“What are you scared of?” He leans in and rubs my cheek with his thumb.
“I’m not sure I’m a risk-taker after all,” I admit, and look at the floor.
“You’re a fucking strong and incredible woman,” he proclaims.
I finally muster the courage to make eye contact with him. “You don’t even know how many times I’ve been heartbroken,” I tell him.
“I’m sorry that I’m the reason for the latest one,” he says, his eyes full of genuine regret.
I shake my head as the realization hits me. “I used work as a Band-Aid, a way to distract myself from being lonely and hurt. Now what do I have to show for it?” I shrug. “Not a damn thing.”
“You have me.” Owen gently hugs me close to his body. I want so badly to believe him, but the pain of all the hurt in my past makes me feel like I can’t let him in.
Surrendering to Owen would mean finally being free of the shackles that bind me, but I need for him to prove his love first.
25
Owen
Having Molly in my arms feels fucking perfect. It’s like everything I never knew I wanted. But she still hasn’t forgiven me.
Not that I can blame her. I fucked up royally, and she’d be perfectly within her rights to kick me to the curb right now.
But I fucking hope like hell that she won’t.
“Molly,” I say, cupping her cheek in my palm and tilting her face up to mine. “Can you forgive me?”
She stares at me for a long time, and I can see the fear in her eyes. Fear that I helped up there.
“I know it’s asking a lot,” I continue. “But please. If you just give me a chance, I’ll spend every fucking day for the rest of my life proving to you that I really do love you. None of what happened between us was a lie. Of that you can be certain.”
The rest of my life. Those words hit me hard. But I know they’re true. There’s not another woman that could do to me what Molly does. She’s it. I know it now. I feel it with everything that’s in me.
“Owen, it felt so real. All of it. I just can’t believe that you tried to deceive me like that. Everything was built on false pretenses.”
“No.” I shake my head adamantly. “Maybe that’s the reason that brought us together, but nothing—nothing, do you hear me?—about a single second we’ve been together has been false. Every bit of it’s real. Including how much I love you.”
This time she gives me a small smile. “I love you, too.”
All the air rushes out of my lungs in a breath I didn’t even realize I’d been holding. Fuck. She loves me. It’s almost impossible to believe.
“So, you’re saying there’s a chance?” I give her teasing smirk.
“I’m scared,” she says again. “But I don’t want to be that person anymore. I want to take a chance. I want to see what’s out there for me.” She pauses. “Or what’s right here.”
That’s all I needed to hear. I’ll spend every day showing her that everything she could ever want is right here. Us. Together.
I stare into her eyes for several heartbeats, then I slowly lower my mouth to hers. She doesn’t resist. In fact, it feels like…surrender.
Within moments, what starts as a slow kiss grows deeper, needier. It’s like we’re both starved for each other. My hand comes up to graze along her side and up over the firm mound of her breast, then I’m sliding the robe off her shoulders.
I kiss along her neck and down her collarbone,
licking and nipping and reveling in the fact that she’s in my arms.
I’m never going to let her go.