The woman who peeked inside didn’t belong in the bar. She didn’t belong in his world at all. She was too good for him. Too perfect and kind and beautiful. Her angelic face was filled with ethereal beauty that he’d captured frantically—over and over—on his canvases. A beauty that haunted him. And even across the room, when her gaze locked on him, the stunning clarity of her green eyes stole his breath. Her lips—unpainted, pale pink and lush—curled as she saw him.
His angel began to walk toward him.
Instinctively, he shook his head.
She kept advancing. His gaze dipped over her body, and he half expected her to be wearing a mud-stained white dress. Instead, she wore jeans. A loose sweater. Sneakers. And this time, there were no leaves in the darkness of her hair.
Turn away and run.A whisper in his mind. The same one he’d had the first time she’d come toward him in this bar. She should flee from him, but…
I don’t know if I can let her go.
Jacqueline stopped at the edge of his wobbly, wooden table even as the beer drip, drip, dripped onto the floor. “I need you.”
Before, she’d said…I need your help.
Remy cleared his throat. “How are you here?” His hands fisted and released. Fisted and released, over and over as he fought the urge to grab her and hold tight. To never let go.
“I drove here. No hitchhiking with truckers this time. Got a tip from a friend of yours that you were up here. Well, sort of a tip, I suppose. He gave a strong hint, and I figured out the rest.”
Remy didn’t know if he should thank Ty or kick his ass. “The agents took me out of the hospital while I was unconscious. I didn’t want to leave you.”
“But you stayed away when you woke up.”
Yes, he had. His hands fisted. Released. “You deserve better than me.”
“Better than someone who will risk his life to protect me? Better than someone who will fight to protect me even as blood is soaking him?” She shook her head. “I don’t think it gets better than you. And if it does, I don’t care. I loveyou.Thief, criminal, secret agent. Whatever—whoever you’re currently pretending to be, I love you, and I am here to fight for you.”
He swallowed. “You have a safe life at home.”
“Are you sure it’s so safe? The last time I checked, athome,I had someone who tried to kill me. It was up here in the mountains where I found safety. I walked up to this really gorgeous guy, and he became my hero.”
“I’m not,” Remy rasped. He was so far from being a hero. Had she missed the part where he nearly drove a screwdriver into Preston’s heart?That bastard will never get out of prison. He will never hurt her again.
“I decide who is my hero. I decide who I love.” Her hand rose. Pressed to his chest. Her lips trembled into a smile. “I saw a big, black truck outside. Tell me it’s yours.”
She was giving him all the words she’d said when they first met, and he could feel her fingers trembling. This time, he told her the truth. “It’s not. Just some loaner. The cabin isn’t mine, either, but I would love to buy a home similar to it. A place that you might like.” He clamped his lips together before he could add…A place where you’d stay with me.
Her breath came faster. So did his. His hand also rose to curl around hers. Not to pull her hand away, but to press it closer. “I missed you,” he confessed.
“I wantyou,” she told him. “I don’t want safety if it means I don’t have you.”
She was ripping him apart. “Sweetness…”
“Tell me you don’t love me, and I will walk away.”
He shook his head. “Can’t do that. I love you more than anything in this world.” Another of those truths that she could pull so effortlessly from him.
Her smile widened. “You’re in love with me?”
“Yes.”A thousand times, yes.Yes—always. Always.
“It’s been an incredibly bad few weeks,” she said as her shoulders straightened. “The love of my life vanished. Everyone was saying he wasn’t real, and I felt like a giant hole had been left in my chest because I missed him so much. The life around me was empty and dull, and I just wanted to see him again.”
“I want you to be happy,” Remy told her. “With me, you’ll always have some danger lurking in the shadows.”
“I don’t care.”
Rodney hadn’t even glanced their way.