“I’m tired of missing you,” I confess and nearly choke on the words. “I’m too lonely to miss someone who chooses to be gone.” His expression doesn’t change but his grip on me tightens. I lean forward, needing to be closer to him, praying he understands I just hurt too much when he’s gone. My bed creaks with the shift in our weight. “I get it, I do. I swear I understand the family business and--”
Dean’s thumb stops me from speaking, pressing it against my lips as his other fingers grace my jaw and he cups my chin, shushing me. I’m not a girl to be shushed though. He leans his head down, in an effort to rest his forehead against mine, but I pull away. I need it to be over. I am addicted to him, but this is killing me.
I think I love you. And it kills me that you don’t choose me. It’s what I want to say to him. But the words tumble over each other at the back of my throat. My face is hot and my eyes prick with tears and I have to get away and get off this bed to put space between us.
“Lysa, baby, stop,” Dean’s quick to snatch my wrist, jumping out of the bed and pulling my body against his. He’s so much taller, and warmer, every inch of me wants to mold to his masculine form. With soft kisses in my hair, he says something… something that sounds like I love you, but it can’t be that.
I try to pull away again, but his strong arm wraps around my waist, pulling me in close again. With both of my palms against his chest, both of us still bared to one another, I’m caught in his heated gaze when he tells me clear as day, “I love you Lysa. And if you’ll have me, I want to be here with you. I sold the truck, I left the business. I just want to stay right here with you.”
“What?” I’m breathless.
“I sold it, invested the money and I have some left over I thought…” shaking his head, Dean looks past me for a moment then licks his lower lip, his grip loosening on me and vulnerability shining in his pale blue eyes.
“But that’s all you’ve ever known…” the words come out as a murmur.
“No. There’s something else I know,” he looks down at me with nothing but love. “Something I value more.”
“Dean--”
“I thought I could help you with the bar. I don’t need you to pay me, you can treat the money like a loan or a gift, whatever you want. I don’t need the money, I have enough on my own. I just want to be with you.”
Everything blurs around us as the silence passes. Time slows and I know I’ll remember this moment forever. I dreamed a thousand dreams over the years, wanting to confess, but he always wanted me to run away with him, like I wanted to do that first time I saw him, back when my father was still here and he would be there to take care of the bar. “Did you say you loved me?” I have no idea how the words manage to escape my lips in a whisper, or where they even came from.
For the first time that I can remember, Dean blushes. With his large hand running down the back of his neck, he grins at me, a boyish grin. “I might have. I might have said I love you so damn much it hurts.”
His grin falters slightly until I lift up onto my tip toes to press my lips against his and give him all of me in that one touch.
I don’t know when I gave my heart to him, but right now, I vow to give him all of me.
“I love you Dean.” I love him so damn much it hurts too. “You promise you’ll stay with me?”
Wrapping his arms around me and pulling me into his chest, he brings me back to bed. “I’ll stay with you Lysa. I’m here with you. I’m right here. And I’m not leaving anymore.”
He repeats, “I love you.”
BY WILLOW WINTERS
Merciless World
A Kiss to Tell
Possessive
Seductive
Merciless
Heartless
Breathless
Endless
All He’ll Ever Be
A Kiss To Keep
A Single Glance
A Single Kiss
A Single Touch
Hard to Love
Desperate to Touch
Tempted to Kiss
Easy to Fall
This Love Hurts
Merciless World Spin Off
It’s Our Secret
Standalone Novels:
Broken
Forget Me Not
Sins and Secrets Duets:
Imperfect (Imperfect Duet book 1)
Unforgiven (Imperfect Duet book 2)
Damaged (Damaged Duet book 1)
Scarred (Damaged Duet book 2)
Willow Winters
Standalone Novels:
All I Want is a Kiss
Tell Me To Stay
Second Chance
Knocking Boots
Promise Me
Burned Promises
Forsaken, cowritten with B. B. Hamel
Collections
Don’t Let Go
Deepen The Kiss
Kisses and Wishes
Valetti Crime Family Series:
Dirty Dom
His Hostage
Rough Touch
Cuffed Kiss
Bad Boy
Highest Bidder Series,
cowritten with Lauren Landish:
Bought
Sold
Owned
Given
Bad Boy Standalones,
cowritten with Lauren Landish:
Inked
Tempted
Mr. CEO
ABOUT WILLOW WINTERS
Thank you so much for reading my romances. I’m just a stay at home mom and avid reader turned author and I couldn’t be happier. I hope you love my books as much as I do!
More by W Winters
www.willowwinterswrites.com/books/
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CONTACT W WINTERS
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Damsel Dude in Distress
Copyright © 2020 Helena Hunting
All rights reserved
Published by Helena Hunting
Editing by Paige Maroney Smith
Proofing by the Hustlers
Road Trip is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are all products of the author’s twisted imagination and are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events, locals, or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.
Except as permitted under the US Copyright Act
