The suggestion was flippant, but she knew it wasn’t an option. Not anymore.
“That’s not happening. I need to know you’re where you belong. Under my roof, my sheets, and safe where I can see you. Knowing you’re in my bed, waiting for me, gives me a reason to stop working.”
“Okay.” Her smile was soft, the confirmation comforting. She leaned into his shoulder, inhaling his scent, at ease by his side. “Maybe you can do that thing with the rope again.”
Jamie’s hand tightened around her thigh, a warning in his grip. “If you keep talking like that, I’ll struggle to keep my promise. Say that again, and I’ll tie you up and leave you there, just to remind you who you belong to.”
That night, Jamie kept his word. After running her a lavender bath, he set a bowl of Irish stew before her at the dining table, its familiar taste reminding her of Harry. It didn’t taste the same, though.
The sip of wine she had left her stomach unsettled. So she had an ice-filled glass of fizzy water, wondering why everything seemed sodifferent.
Once she was full, Jamie carried her to bed, propped her with pillows, and clicked on the TV.
“This is where you fall apart if you need to,” he said, tucking the duvet around her. “And I’ll be right here.”
He lay beside her, holding her hand like they were an old married couple, so easy, so natural.
She wanted to tell him how he’d become her saviour, how his presence had changed everything. To put her heart on the line, to lay it all out for him.
The constant flutters in her chest, the longing to be near him, the way he worshipped her. Her emotions ran so deep, but every time she thought about opening up, a knot of fear twisted in her gut. What if it all crumbled the second she let herself fall too far?
Glancing at his profile, at the way his hand held hers tighter, she nodded to herself.
“You okay, love?” he asked, kissing her knuckles.
Every bruise on her soul, every crack she’d tried to hide, now lived under his protection because she belonged to him. Her pain, her past, her body… all his to hold, to command and soothe.
She glanced at him, blinking in his mussed-up hair and amber eyes.
“Yeah…” Her smile trembled. “I...I don’t know how you do it, but everything’s easier when I’m with you. You make it all…better.”
This was it.
She’d fallen in love, and she hadn’t even noticed the fall until he was the only one catching her.
But even as the thought settled inside her, a cold ripple of fear gripped her heart. Niall would be back any day now, and when he returned, everything she had would come crashing down.
He would ruin this. He always did.
45
Shannon
Jamie stood alongside Bucky in the viewing gallery, arms folded, legs planted wide.
She didn’t need to look over at him to know he was watching every fence Trixie carried her over.
She’d slept for over ten hours the night before, but it didn’t seem to touch her exhaustion.
Every movement she made must have looked sluggish, her shoulders drooping, her body heavy.
Trixie responded well, but Shannon wasn’t fully present. When the canter ended, she swung her leg over the mare’s back and slid to the ground.
Her boots hit the sand, and her knees wobbled.
Black spots clouded her vision. The arena spun. She reached out and gripped the stirrup leather, fingers tightening to keep herself upright.
Her spine tingled, sensing him before the warmth of his hand settled at the small of her back. Even with thefog dulling her thoughts, Jamie’s presence cut through like sunlight through mist.
