Page 468 of Face Off
“You’re excessively prepared,” I tell him.
“I have however long you are here to do as I please with you.”
“Tomorrow.”
“Then you have twenty-four hours to recover from your terrible decisions.”
“You were the terrible decision.”
“I remain your favorite.”
He helps me into the shirt and pulls me against his chest. I settle over him with my cheek above his heart while one hand moves slowly along my back.
The ordinary intimacy threatens to undo me after everything else.
“I have three conversations left,” I say.
Ryan’s hand stills.
“Before what?”
“Before I can bring my life here without feeling like I left pieces of myself rotting behind me.”
His body tightens beneath mine. “You don’t have to earn the right to come home.”
“I know.”
“Do you?”
“Yes.” I lift my head and meet his eyes. “They aren’t conditions I have to satisfy before you’re allowed to love me. They’re conversations I owe people I hurt while I was fighting so hard to protect myself that I stopped seeing what it cost everyone else.”
“Who?”
“Bliss, Aura, and Cade.”
Ryan’s expression hardens at the final name.
“What do you owe Bliss?”
“An apology for waiting after she showed us the bruise and Luke’s messages. I respected her confidence when her safety should have mattered more.”
“Luke is responsible for what happened to Bliss.”
“I know. That doesn’t make every decision I made correct.”
“And Aura?”
“I abandoned her emotionally when she needed me. I was so consumed by what Easton’s return meant for my family that I treated her pain like an inconvenience. I need to own that without asking her to forgive me immediately.”
Ryan’s hand resumes moving along my back. “Cade?”
“He went outside after you left the wedding. He stayed with me even though he was furious, and I made him witness the damage I caused while expecting him to protect me from the consequences.”
“You don’t owe him access to our relationship.”
“I owe him accountability for what I put his brother through.”
Ryan looks toward the windows. His jaw tightens while he works through the instinct to stand between Cade and anything capable of hurting me.
