He wrapped his arms around her, held her tight to him. His wife. The love of his life.
“I thought I knew love,” he said. “But I was wrong. I chose to call something love because I found it comfortable. Because it was something I could control, but Leah, that isn’t love. I’ve never known anything like this. So deep. So real.”
“I thought I knew it, too. But I didn’t really. Not until I knew you. Until I appreciated how strong you were. How amazing. Until I knew the hell you walked through, only to come out on the other side.”
“Damaged,” he said. “I came out damaged. But you...you make me feel new, Leah. You make me feel things in a way that I didn’t know was possible. Before it was like I was looking at everything shrouded in darkness but now...now I see it. Now I understand. I thought I knew love, I thought I knew myself. But you found me.”
Leah closed her eyes tight, held Ajax. Just held him. And he held her, too.
She was whole now. Her missing piece was back.
“Oh, Ajax. I feel like you helped me find me, too.”
“I’m so glad,” he said, “because without you, without all of those things you said to me. Without you loving me when I couldn’t love myself, I wouldn’t be standing here.”
“I love you,” she said. She pulled her head back, cupped his face with her hands and looked at his eyes. Looked at how they shone with emotion. Not flat, deep. Endless. “Now tell me how you feel.”
“I love you,” he said, his gaze never leaving hers. “I love you now and always.”
“So...all things considered...what if we stay married?” She closed her eyes. “Ugh. I proposed to you again. I have to stop doing that.”
He caught her chin with his thumb and forefinger. “No. Don’t stop. I like all your propositions.”
“Yeah?”
“Yes.”
“So...will you?”
“Leah, I’m not perfect.”
“I know, darling.”
He laughed, then sobered again. “I will fail you. I will make mistakes. I will...I will still growl sometimes. But even then, I’ll love you. And if you can take that, that little I have to offer, then I will be the happiest man in the world.”
Leah leaned in and kissed him, poured her whole heart into it. When they parted, they were both breathing hard. “Ajax, that’s the silliest thing I’ve ever heard.”
“What is? The part about me failing you?”
“No. That sounds honest. You’re human, after all. It’s the part about you having so little to offer. Ajax, your love isn’t a little thing. Your love is everything.”
“Oh, Leah, I’m so glad you think so. I feel the same way. Without your love, I would still be chained up inside myself. Without you, I wouldn’t even be living. Not really. Your love took all the broken pieces in, and it put them back together. Put me back together.”
And then Ajax Kouros, the man of her dreams, looked at her in a way that surpassed her dearest fantasies and kissed her. Kissed her as she’d spent so many days hoping he would. And she could feel it, down to her toes. Because that was the freedom of being exposed. She felt it all.
This was all so much better than any fantasy. Because this wasn’t the perfect Ajax of her fantasies who kissed her, then rode off into the sunset with her. This was Ajax, the man, with every scar, every flaw. And more passion than she ever could have imagined.
“So,” she said. “I have a silk scarf up in my room.”
“I don’t need that anymore.”
“Who said anything about need? The only thing I need is you. The rest is just fun.”
He smiled, the most genuine smile she’d ever seen on his face. “Fun. Something else I was missing, along with love. Leah, I have a feeling with you I’ll never be without either one.”
“That’s a promise.”
EPILOGUE
“IT’S OFFICIALLY TIME to panic.”
Leah walked out of the bathroom and into the bedroom at her father’s Rhodes Estate where Ajax was sitting on the bed, waiting for her.
“Why?” he asked. “Is the bride missing again?”
“Rachel? No. As far as I know she’s ready to walk down that aisle with Alex.”
It had been a long time since the day Rachel had run out on the wedding that ended up being hers and Ajax’s. The best day of her life.