Page 134 of Heart Over Heels

“Itis,” he insisted. “You helped him. You probably saved his life.”

That was how the Corps had seen it. And yes, that was why they’d pinned those medals on me. Awards I’d stashed away but still listed on my résumé, trying to impress anyone but myself.

Darby leaned closer and freed a hand to cup my jaw, thumb stroking slowly along the bone. “And you made it home,” he murmured. “For your daughter. And maybe… for me.”

We were close enough to kiss. Too close not to remember the feeling of his mouth on mine, his taste on my tongue. But before I could dip in, he spoke again.

“Mercy? Can we play our game one more time?” He eased back an inch, his expression going pensive. “Only this time, I want to ask questions, and you answer with the truth.”

I wanted to tell him that wasn’t our game at all, more like a modified Truth or Dare, or an interview for a job. Though, if that job was a position in his life, I would put my best foot forward.

“Okay,” I said.

Darby drew a breath, gaining resolve by the moment. “About what you said at the club. When I was still mad at you. Did you mean that?”

I sifted through the things I’d told him in the VIP suite—warnings about Antonella and apologies for my part in her plot—but it seemed obvious which one he meant.

“That I love you?”

He shrank back as if guarding a wound. “Don’t just…” He faltered, frowned, and tried again. “It’s okay if you didn’t mean it. People say things, and you were upset?—”

“I do love you, Darby.”

Emotions flickered across his face—fear, hope, disbelief, longing—all of them so raw. Gradually, he composed himself, or tried to, grasping at the mask he’d put away when we walked in here.

“People say things,” he repeated as if that changed anything.

It didn’t.

“What’s your next question?” I asked.

His throat bobbed before he rasped out, “Why?”

“Why what?”

“Why do you… really?” His voice cracked on the last word.

“Oh, pretty girl,” I breathed as I took his hands again. “I love you because you’re profound.”

His chest swelled with a breath that shook his whole frame.

“You are the most genuine person I’ve ever known,” I went on, because stopping now felt impossible. “You feel everything with your whole heart. You care so deeply it scares you, but you still don’t stop. And you’re incredibly kind. Down to the bone. I love you,” I repeated, needing the words in the air between us, needing him to hear them as many times as it took. “Because you made me feel more welcome in this world, in this damn house, than anyone else could have. You created a place for me without even realizing you were doing it.”

Bringing one of his hands to my lips, I pressed a kiss to his knuckles.

“And I love you becauseyoucame home too,” I whispered. “To me.”

He swallowed hard, eyes shining and white lashes clumping with tears.

“Mercy,” he managed, barely getting those two syllables out. “One more question.”

“Yes?”

He hesitated only long enough for the first tear to break free. Then in the smallest, most devastating voice, he asked, “Can we go to your bedroom now?”

CHAPTER

THIRTY-NINE