I felt him brush a kiss across the crown of my head and his fingertips dug painfully into the curve of my hips.
I wrapped an arm around his neck and pulled his head toward mine. It was a kiss that changed me. It was a kiss that shaped me into a woman that knew I could make the hard choices for the right reasons. It was a kiss that told me I could walk away from temptation and enticement when I had to. It was a kiss that had every right thing I’d ever done in it. It was a kiss that told me Ben was saved and let me know I was the one that had saved him.
His lips were hard against mine, punishing. He didn’t like this any better than I did and it was killing him that there was nothing either of us could do about it. I wasn’t supposed to be here…and neither was he. He needed to find a way to get his life back, now that he had one worth living and now that he was a man trying to be worthy of living it.
When I pulled back, we were both breathing hard and his jaw was locking in a line so tight I was worried his back teeth might crack. I rubbed my thumb along his now damp lower lip.
“This girl…she’s going to miss you, Ben.” I took a step back and he let his hands fall. He exhaled long and low, his eyes sharp enough to slice through all my bravado and bluster. “She’s also a thief. I took something you’re going to want back, so even if you can’t figure out a way to come for me, you’re going to want to figure out a way to come for what I stole.”
His lips twitched in response but he didn’t make a move toward me until I bent to pick up my battered bag. I didn’t even have the handles in my hand when he was there hefting it up and putting a hand on my lower back so he could guide me out the door and down to the waiting truck. The engine was running and the doctor was behind the wheel tapping his fingers and looking at his cell phone. Ben walked me to the passenger door, stopping to pull it open so he could deposit the bag on the floorboard. I felt his fingers at the back of my neck, under my hair, and his lips touch the top of my ear.
“You were never a problem, Echo. You have been nothing but a pleasure from the get go.” He squeezed my neck and stepped back as I turned around to look at him. “Take care of yourself, Pop-Tart.”
I dipped my chin down and blinked away the sudden wash of tears that filled my eyes. “You too, and, Ben…” His eyes burned into mine, searing the last few days deep into my soul. “Keep the beard. That’s the one part of this life that does suit you.”
He helped me up into the truck and closed the door with a soft click. I gave him a little wave and got a very masculine chin lift in response. I was trying to hold it together—after all, I’d lost so much more than a man I’d only had for a moment—but I couldn’t stop a couple of stray teardrops from rolling over my eyelashes and running down my too-hot cheeks. I swiped at the telltale sign of weakness with the back of my hand and let out a shuddering sigh.
I could feel the man next to me looking at me out of the corner of his very blue eyes. I didn’t have the emotional reserves left to deal with his sympathy or his suspicion. Fortunately, he seemed pretty attuned to the fact that I was on the edge and ready to slip over, so all he offered up was a quiet, “Been an intense few days for you, hasn’t it?”
I sighed again and leaned over so I could rest my forehead on the cool glass of the window. “You have no idea.”
Everything was a white blur as he navigated away from the cabin on a road that wasn’t much of a road at all. Ben was literally hidden away from everything and everyone. I never would have found him if I hadn’t gone careening down that mountain on the worst night of my life.
“Everything will settle down and seem less catastrophic once you’re back in familiar territory.” His voice was low and soothing. He might have been in a hurry but his impeccable bedside manner never wavered.
“Maybe, but I tend to live in chaos. This was actually a nice break from the insanity I surround myself in.” Ben had been the shelter to my always raging storm. “But every fairy tale ends. Snow White has to wake up and face the music eventually.”
He had no idea what I was talking about, which was fine by me. I wasn’t sure I could put into words the enormity of what I felt toward Ben and my time with him. Turning my head slightly, I asked, “Did any of your brothers ever mention a girl that worked at the airport in Denver paying a lot of unwanted attention to them, by any chance?”
He gave me a questioning look and lifted a shoulder in a careless shrug. “No, but all of us usually have a layover in Denver when we travel out of state; why?”