He traced a finger along a seam in the faded hospital sheet, his gaze settling on her arm and the speck of blood that had seeped through the bandage. Emotions—too many to catalog—roared through him. He’d never desired someone in so many layered, bewildering, wonderful ways. Ways that both comfortedandconfounded. Quiet dinners and laughter-filled breakfasts. Walks through fields he truly did lovetoo much to part with. Travel, children, and all the dream-building they could stand.
Making love until dawn, the new day a brilliant prospect behind drawn curtains.
“I’ll be back tomorrow to pick you up.” Campbell tapped the mattress with two hard knocks, sharp as Nurse Ratched’s. But he couldn’t quite back away from the bloodstain he knew would live in his memory for years. “Don’t leave with anyone else. Kick Jaime out on his ass if he shows up, or I will. And if Henry Bowman dares to show his face, I’ll unleash years of repressed, teenage rage.”
Fontana shocked him by laughing. “Caveman, meet Campbell True.” He glanced up, ready to argue, but she waved the comment away, amusement still flickering in her lapis eyes. “Ignore me, it’s the pain meds.”
Unable to stop himself, he approached like a man setting up the perfect shot—careful, reverent—then pressed a whisper-soft kiss to her lips. When she lingered, her good arm rising to pull him close, he hummed low, stepped back. “Uh-uh. Pain meds and passion don’t mix. You want Ratched to come in and drag me out?”
He was across the room before he paused. Her lids were sliding low, shadowy crescents beneath each eye underscoring a day neither of them would ever forget. “Hellcat?”
She blinked, and it was the sapphire of his dreams. Of his future. “I forgot to tell you. I love you, Fontana Quinn. With everything I have.”
Then he let the door close on his declaration.
chapter
twenty-two
There She Goes–The La’s
FONTANA
She was nervous.
And annoyed.
And happier than she’d ever been in her life.
Because maybe the man she loved with everythingshehad, if he’d give her the chance to return the sentiment, wasn’t going to vanish in one of the million ways she’d imagined he would.
Poof, like he’d never been there.
An awkward goodbye in the Rise’s drive while he loaded the black bullet with boxes and Kit, the boy she’d come to love almost as much as she loved his big brother. A note left on her windshield, this time filled with heartbreak instead of hope. A phone call—no tantalizing orgasms involved—just sorrow and guilt as he explained why he had to leave Promise.
Leave her.
Instead, he sat next to her, one hand centered on the wheel, the other clutching hers with just enough tension to sayhe wasn’t letting go anytime soon. The truck’s open window sent dark hair dancing across his brow. He hadn’t shaved, and she was dying to trail her lips over that incredibly sexy, dense stubble. Form-fitting cashmere and jeans with a ragged hole at the thigh—one she longed to slip her finger into—made for an intriguing mix.
Elegant grunge, if she had to name it.
He looked like a Greek god, while she was rocking mismatched clothes someone else had picked out for her.
Screw it. No makeup, hair a disaster, outfit completely out of whack, but the way Campbell had looked at her across the truck’s roof before they slid inside?Oh, wow.No woman on Earth could miss that kind of heat. His eyes had gone nearly black with it.
He might be mine.
Fontana patted her belly, a shout-out to the butterflies bumping around inside. How like a man to drop the love bomb and bolt—even with a demon-eyed nurse breathing down his neck and a rent-a-cop lurking at the end of the hall, ready to pounce on any visitor who broke the rules. The pain meds had rendered the whole thing fuzzy and dreamlike.
What if he never said it again?
Was she supposed to bring it up?Did you mean what you said?That sounded like something an eighth-grade girl would ask. She wasn’t going back to middle school, even for the love of her life.
Nothing was ever easy with this man. Magnificent but torturous.
So Campbell True, it hurt.
He squeezed her hand, grin cocky as hell. “Stewing about me again, Hellcat?”
