I whip around, the last of my patience long gone. “You’re trying to make yourself feel better. Well, you’re off the hook. You’re not to blame. I made the decision to marry Sean. I’m the one who was too clueless to see who he really was and what he was doing. Not you, Bennett, me.” I point at my chest. “I made those mistakes. Me. And I am the one who lives with them every day.”
“I’m just saying?—”
“You can’t fix this!” I shout. “Or me.”
The desperation in his eyes guts me. “So what do you want me to do? How do we move forward?”
I close my eyes, and he breaks the distance, slowly, one footstep at a time, gauging my reaction with each one.
“We don’t.”
“If I could pick any day to do over, it would be that one. I hate what you’re going through right now, and yes, I do want to bulldoze my way back into your life and take control. I hate that man for what he did, but at the same time, I want to thank him because had he not, I wouldn’t have this third chance with you. And I realize I probably don’t deserve it, but that’s what I want, to get to a place where we can be us again. At least try to be.”
I shake my head, panic choking off the air, not wanting him to say these things when he doesn’t know the entire story. Doesn’t know that I’m not the person he thinks I am. I’m a monster who’s kept him from his daughter. A horrible person who allowed another man to raise her for seven years. To love her and tuck her in at night and be her daddy.
“You know we’re perfect together. You know we’re meant for one another.” He brushes his knuckles over my cheek.
“We can’t.” My fight wanes. The nearer he gets, the more my body leans toward his.
“Delaney?”
“Yes?”
“If I kissed you right now, would you stop me?”
I don’t blink. Don’t breathe.
And I don’t answer.
Because I don’t want to stop him. I’m so tired. So sick of fighting to get out of bed every day and put up the front that everything is okay. I just want to forget what a mess my life is for one second and allow myself to get lost in him.
Bennett leans in slowly, his gaze flicking to my lips, the space between us charged. His breath warms my skin when he dips his head and runs his nose along my neck. My hands fist at my sides.
“Bennett… there’s something?—”
“Later.”
I open my mouth, and for a moment, the truth teeters there, on the edge, ready to be set free.
But his lips meet mine, and he seals the secret with a kiss. His hands coast up my sides until one is buried in my hair and the other one is pressed against my back, making it so there’s no space between us. His tongue licks along the seam of my lips, and I don’t hesitate to open for him.
My nails dig into my palms, my mind screaming to stop this, but then he groans, and my conscience is silent.
He backs up and our eyes lock, but that string tightens, the energy taut and electrifying.
I fist his shirt and pull him closer, needing to feel the solid weight of his chest against mine. His mouth crashes into mine again, tilting my face to deepen the kiss.
God, I remember every kiss before this one. All the memories of us take control of my body. It’s as if all the years we lost don’t matter. All that does is right here and right now. His tongue brushes mine, and I moan into his mouth, aching from missing him so much. I’ve yearned for him with a deep hunger I didn’t even know I was carrying.
He controls us, pressing me against the frame of the greenhouse and caging me in with his body. His hands are in my hair now, his mouth trailing down to my neck. He nips and bites my collarbone, then soothes it with a swipe of his tongue.
“You feel amazing,” I shamelessly confess.
His hardened length presses into my stomach, and all I want to do is wrap my legs around his waist and climb him like a tree, grinding my core along that bulge. His hand slips beneath the hem of my shirt.
“I’m sorry. We should’ve had this all these years,” he murmurs, taking me out of the moment.
The reality of what we’re doing and what he doesn’t know is a bucket of cold water over my head. I press a hand to his chest. “Wait.”
