Even right now, being in this room with her, and her treating my wounds…
Another memory I would treasure for the rest of my life.
She was silent as she plucked the thorns from one hand and then the other.
Her eyes were intense and focused, and she yanked a splinter out with more aggression than necessary.
“Ouch!” I said.
“Sorry.”
She grabbed a tissue and pressed it to my hand.
A small drop of blood seeped across the tissue paper.
“It was deep,” she said, not looking up at me.
I could hear by the coarseness of her voice that she was upset.
“What’s wrong?” I said.
“Nothing.”
“Tell me.”
“This shouldn’t be happening.”
“What shouldn’t?”
“I’ve never been interested in Liam. He never should have done this. He has no right to me. I never chose him. I would never choose him.”
“You’re a gorgeous woman. Many men would want to be with you. I don’t blame him.”
Her face snapped up to me.
“You don’t?”
I shook my head.
“But he could have killed you,” she said.
“He’s one of the few in town who sees you for who you really are. A beautiful woman with a lot to give. Everyone else is blind. And if an angel like you were to enter my life and I thought I had a chance to be with you… Well, there isn’t much I wouldn’t do to be with you.”
“Even beat a guy with a piece of wood?”
“No. I wouldn’t do that. If you told me I had no chance with you, I would accept it. Eventually. But I would try to convince you otherwise first.”
“You’re not him.”
“No. And that’s a good thing for the both of us.”
She smiled, brightening.
“But you don’t have to worry about me turning you down. But we still can’t let him get away with this. He’ll try it again and next time, he might be successful.”
“He knows you don’t belong to him now. He’ll get over it.”
“You don’t know him like I do. He’ll never stop, not until he gets what he wants.”
“And are you going to give it to him?”
“No.”
I took her face in my hands.
“He’s never coming between us. I won’t let him. I don’t care if he’s the sheriff or the mayor or the President of the United States. He can’t stop us from being together.”
“You don’t know that. He could frame you for a crime you didn’t commit. He could plant drugs on you. Anything to take you away from me.”
The tears streamed down her cheeks and I kissed them into non-existence one by one.
“Then we won’t stay here,” I said. “If we’re not here, he can’t do any of those things.”
“You’re saying we should leave?”
“Why not? Nothing is keeping us here. Your parents will be safe. Liam isn’t interested in hurting them. If he was, he could have done it years ago.”
Isabella was conflicted.
She could see the wisdom in my idea but something was holding her back.
What was it she said earlier?
About something bad happening to her friend when she encouraged her to approach a stranger?
“I know it’s hard for you to trust new people,” I said. “But I’m not like other people. I don’t even know who I am. But I can remember, as time goes on. But those memories aren’t who I am. This is who I am.”
I took her hand and placed it on my chest.
“This is me. Maybe I’ll remember who I once was and maybe I won’t. But we’ll be together. If you want to be.”
“I don’t want to run away.”
“You’re not running away. You’re running toward something. Me. And the life we can share together.”
She smiled, and even though it was broken, it was the most beautiful thing I had ever seen.
“This is nuts,” she said. “I hardly know you!”
“I hardly know myself. But I’m willing to learn. Are you?”
She snorted through tears that rolled down her face freely now.
“We can go anywhere you want,” I said. “We’ll find jobs, get a home, and be happy.”
“What’ll I tell my parents?”
“That we eloped!” I said.
She laughed and despite the tears, it was the happiest thing I had ever seen.
“This is crazy!”
“Maybe we’re both a little crazy.”
She nodded and slid her hand through mine.
“Maybe.”
Then a fresh set of tears ran down her face.
“I thought I’d lost you,” she said.
I wiped the tears developing on her cheek.
“You’ll never lose me. I’m yours. I’ve been yours ever since I fell from the sky.”
She leaned forward and pressed her lips against mine.
I could taste her salty tears on my lips and as she gave herself to me, I breathed her in and was consumed by her strong feminine scent.
She rose and sat in my lap, straddling me like I was the chair.
She pressed her light weight against me as she buried her lips on mine and the chair leaned back and creaked as our weight was combined.
My cock grew ramrod hard and I didn’t even try to prevent it.
It was what she wanted, I knew.
It was what I wanted.
Her hips ground on me, bucking slowly and sensuously, and when we weren’t kissing, her warm breath tickled my face.
It was glorious.
Then she kissed me down my cheeks and down my neck, and I felt each individual hair stand upright on my body at her gentle caress.
Then she worked her way down my chest and flicked my nipples with her tongue.
She looked at me while she did it, her big blue eyes so large they might have been the ocean and sucked me toward their crushing depths.
And I was pleased to do so.
I wanted to be crushed.
I wanted her to destroy me.
So long as she was wrapped around me, I would have accepted anything.
I reached into her top and buried my face in her breasts.
So warm.
I tongued her bra aside to get at her nipple and flicked at it with my tongue.
“Mm,” Isabella said, and she ground against me even harder.
A knock came at the door.
“Dinner’s ready,” Benjamin said.
The words stuck in Isabella’s throat.
“Okay. I’ll be right there. And Pop?”
“Yeah?”
“Don’t knock on Clint’s door. He’s taking a nap. He set
